Teen Titans: Hostile Takeover
by Feral2K
Summary: The return of an old ally  enemy?  heralds big trouble for the Teen Titans
1. Fearsome

Virtually every character in this project belongs to DC Comics in some way or another.

To be honest, I stopped watching the Teen Titans cartoon after they "killed" Slade, so I'm picking up after there. This story starts about two months after Slade and Terra died, and continues in my own timeline from there on. Hope you enjoy.

* * *

"You've caused so much trouble, and I can't even punish you for it. At least I can destroy you."

Terra raised her hand, and the statue, a pale imitation of her if ever there was one, shattered. Sadly, she got no thrill out of the destruction. She'd just avenged her master, but felt nothing. She hadn't even killed her clone, just destroyed a monument to her. Bowing her head, she contemplated her lack of emotion for a minute before one of the others with her spoke up.

"When are we going to start the revenge thing? I mean, I didn't sign up just to watch you blow stuff up. I want to blow stuff up too."

They didn't understand, none of them. But Terra didn't need zealots. All she needed was bodies, and the foursome she'd recruited certainly counted as that, if nothing else. She shook her head, clearing it of all distracting thoughts. She needed to be focused to pull this off. Turning, she faced her recruits. One was short and bald, clad in a green jumpsuit and carrying a metal backpack. Two of them, a large boy and a girl, looked very similar both physically and in costume, which made sense, seeing as they were brother and sister. The last was simply a freak, with a massive spider in place of his head. None of them were exactly geniuses, but each had their place.

"All right. Gizmo, Shimmer, I need you to come with me. Mammoth, Fang, there's someone else that knows about us. You two make sure she can't tell our enemies anything they don't already know. Any means necessary, understand?"

"Sweet. I can taste victory already."

Fang and Mammoth went one way while Shimmer, Gizmo and Terra went the other. Terra grinned. Soon, everyone else that had messed with her master would pay. All in due time.

**Teen Titans**

Fearsome

"Look, it's just that you shouldn't do that. This isn't Tamaran."

"But, I did not know he was only joking. He seemed serious."

"Yeah, but still, humans can't take that kind of punishment like you can, Star."

"You can."

"I'm diff-"

A shriek split the night air, and both Starfire and Cyborg stopped their conversation. Members of the Teen Titans, they'd had pretty few problems in the last couple of months; the disappearance of Slade had shut down most criminal activities in Jump City, and the entire team had been getting pretty bored. The two of them rushed down the alleyway the scream had come from, not knowing how soon they would be longing for boredom again.

The two of them found themselves staring down two old enemies, both standing over a huddled form. Mammoth, a massive young man, was staring down at the form, not paying any attention to his surroundings. The other, the spider-headed thug named Fang, was more attentive, and began slapping Mammoth on the shoulder.

"Dude, dude, dude! Titans!"

Mammoth turned, and his jaw almost dropped when he saw the duo at the other end of the alley. Grunting, he charged towards them. By unspoken agreement, Starfire rocketed at Fang, while Cyborg counter-charged Mammoth. The two bigger fighters clashed, while Starfire tried getting a clean shot at Fang without hitting his victim. Raising her arms, she readied a powerful blast of energy. As she brought her hands down to throw it, Fang shot a glob of webbing at her, sticking her hands together and setting off her starbolt right in her face. She managed to recover before she hit the ground, and redirected her efforts to removing Fang and Mammoth's victim from the scene, grabbing her by the waist and taking her on top of the nearest building. Cyborg saw none of this; he was trying to get some information out of Mammoth while they fought.

"Come on, man. Slade's done, and the rest of your kind have run off. What are you and ugly over there still doing here?"

"Wouldn't you like to kn-uff!"

Mammoth was knocked off his feet by one of Cyborg's punches. Staggering back, he found himself staring down the business end of his foe's sonic cannon. Fang, who was trying unsuccessfully to get Starfire down off the roof, jumped down, landing next to his partner-in-crime. Both of them pulled small devices off of matching belts, pressing the slight indentation on one end. Cyborg realized what they were doing, but only too late; the teleporters had activated, and Fang and Mammoth were gone before he could do anything about it.

"Cyborg? What are we to be doing with her?"

"The girl? We take her to a hospital."

"But . . . she would not likely stay there all that long. She is . . . an unwelcome person."

"What do you mean, Star? It's not like she's-"

Cyborg's words were cut off when Starfire brought the damsel in distress down to the street. She was very familiar, even though neither of them had seen her in a while. In fact, the last time they'd seen her, she'd broken into Titans Tower with Mammoth and Gizmo on an errand for Slade. Right now, though, Jinx didn't have a friend in the world, as evidenced by one of her former comrades beating the tar out of her in the street. The two Titans looked at each other. Neither wanted to be the one to say it, and neither had to; they both knew that, in order for Jinx to get treatment without immediately going to jail, they would have to take her to the Tower.

"Robin's not going to like this."

* * *

"I don't like it, but I don't see that you had any other choice. She might have valuable information, and we'd never get it out of her if she went to jail."

Robin was sitting in the main room of Titans Tower, looking over at Cyborg and Starfire. The two of them had contacted him as soon as they had saved Jinx, telling him what had happened. There had been a bit of an argument, until Cyborg had hinted that Jinx might have information on the last few super-criminals hiding in Jump City; at that point, Robin had practically jumped at the chance to get her there. Raven was in the medical room, using her powers to slowly fix Jinx's wounds. The last member of the team, Beast Boy, was nowhere to be found, and wasn't yet aware that an old enemy was holed up in the tower. The only thing to do now was to wait for Jinx to heal enough to answer their questions. Starfire asked the question that all three of them had been thinking.

"What if she does not wish to answer our questions? What if she attacks us?"

"What if who attacks us?"

All three of them turned to see green-skinned Beast Boy bound into the room. Jumping the back of the couch, he plopped down next to Robin. It took a second for him to realize that he was the only one smiling. It quickly faded.

"Dudes, did someone die or something?"

"We have someone in the tower that we think might be able to help us. She was-"

"She!? Is it Terra? Is she back?"

Robin looked to Starfire and Cyborg before shaking his head slowly. More than any of them, Beast Boy wanted Terra to be restored to life. With Robin's denial of his guess, his smile faded, drooping into a sad frown. Starfire put a hand on his shoulder, but he shrugged it off and stormed out of the room. Starfire made a move to go after him, but Robin put an arm out to stop her.

"Leave him alone. He needs it."

"But . . . he needs a friend, someone to comfort him-"

"What he _needs_ is for someone to get it through his thick skull that Terra's not coming back. We've tried everything, both my science and Raven's magic, and nothing's worked, even when we mixed the two. It just can't be done."

"And if we tell him that, he might snap. He loved Terra, and I don't know if he can take the idea of her being gone for good."

"This is not right. Does he not have a right to know this? If he finds out we hid this from him, he might do worse than if we simply tell him."

"Starfire, in this case, honesty is _not_ the best policy. Beast Boy-"

"Isn't the issue right now. I've healed her as much as I can, and she should be talking within the next few hours."

The three Titans turned to the last member of the team. Raven's face was even more grim than usual; as the team's mystic, she had more reason to dislike Jinx than any other member of the team. In fact, it had taken most of Robin's cunning to convince her to help Jinx in the first place. She didn't show it, but the whole time she'd been in the medical room, she'd been trying not to smother Jinx with a pillow. As soon as Jinx spilled her information, if she had any, Raven was going to make a case for taking her to jail and leaving her there. Despite her emotionless face, something in her body language must have given her intentions away, because Robin felt the need to say something about it.

"Before you say anything, just remember that I almost did the same thing to you, when we first met."

Raven stiffened. She and Robin never talked about that first encounter, before she'd managed to get her dark side under control. She'd run wild, and in the end, Robin had asked _something_ to help him stop her. The two of them had worked to get her emotions in the state they were today, and she had helped Robin form the Titans, but it was an unspoken agreement that they were not to speak of that time in her past. Fury shot through her mind for a second, but she tamped it down immediately. If she lost control again . . .

"I'm going to keep an eye on her. The rest of you, it's late. Try and get some rest, and I'll tell you anything she told me in the morning."

Robin went for the medical center, and the others scattered for their separate rooms, not knowing how the night would unfold.

* * *

"And you're sure they didn't change the codes?"

"_They know my master's dead, and they think I'm dead too. Our whole base was destroyed, so they think there's no reason to change the codes. Tell that little creep to hurry up."_

"Boss lady says-"

"I heard her. Crud-munching-"

"You know you sound like a little brat when you talk like that, right? I mean, you're, what, 15? Stop talking like a kid, or I'll whip up some way to shut you up permanently."

Gizmo muttered something under his breath, all of a sudden afraid to say it out loud. Shimmer was _crazy_, and with her big brother backing her up, she had no reason to control it. His big worry was that she'd flip out on him if he didn't get the door open fast enough for her. That worry went unrealized this time as, about a few seconds after he thought it, the lock disengaged. Shimmer strode purposefully through the door, with Gizmo tailing after her.

"So, what are we supposed to do, anyway?"

"_Remove as many power players as possible. Raven's probably the most dangerous; we never got a good read on her when she let her emotions go, so I'm not entirely sure of the limits of her powers. Starfire's next, both because of her power and the fact that it'll drive Robin ballistic. Then Cyborg, Robin and Beast Boy, in that order."_

"Cool. Think I'll try and grab a souvenir while I'm at it-"

"_No. This isn't some kind of game. We have to strike hard and fast, so no grandstanding. Got it?"_

"Yeah, yeah. Control freak."

This last was said after Shimmer turned off the communicator she'd been talking into. She _really_ wanted to bring something home with her from Titans Tower, and no one, not even the slightly scary blond chick that had convinced her to leave the HIVE, was going to stop her. The only question was, what to take? She really wanted a utility belt like Robin's, but had no idea what kind of traps he'd have put into it after the few times it had been stolen. She couldn't think of anything else she could possibly want that was unique to a particular Titan, but she was certain she could find something, given ti-

"You're not from around here, are you?"

Shimmer drew back. She'd been so distracted by the thought of stealing something that she'd almost run right into Raven. The hero drew back, raising her hands. Shadows started forming around them, and Shimmer realized she had only one chance. Grabbing a handful of the smoke bombs in her belt, she threw them at Raven, concentrating on their contents very carefully.

"Azarath Metrio-ack-ack!"

While chanting her magic words, Raven had inhaled a lungful of the smoke Shimmer had doctored to be a little acidic. Now, she was coughing up blood as the gas tore through her lungs. She dropped to the ground, still coughing. Shimmer rolled her over on her side, and decided she'd found a souvenir. Unclipping the gemmed belt Raven wore, she fitted it around her own waist. A little big, but wearable. She turned around, finding Gizmo staring at her, aghast.

"What? Does it not match the rest of my outfit?"

"You . . . you just . . . that was awesome!"

"Sure. Now, let's get moving. Four more to go, dontcha know."

The two young super-villains were roaming the halls when they heard a movement from up ahead. Ducking in through one of the doors, they peeked around to find Cyborg walking down, carrying a massive sandwich. Gizmo grinned and gestured for Shimmer to let him take this one. Stepping out into the hallway, he fired a small rod out of his backpack. It hit Cyborg, and immediately began downloading several viruses into his system. They'd expected his reaction to be a simple falling down, but he surprised them; he shouted loud enough to wake the dead. Immediately, lights came on and voices sounded. Shimmer reached for her teleporter, but was knocked on the ground before she could activate it. Rolling around, she found herself staring into Starfire's green-on-green eyes. Starfire looked _furious_. Shimmer responded by willing the air around herself and Gizmo solid, forming a nigh-indestructible barrier between them and Starfire. Grinning like a demon, she activated her teleporter, vanishing from the Tower in the space between seconds.

* * *

"You have WHO in the med center!? And it never occurred to you that she might be a plant for Gizmo and his psycho girlfriend?"

Beast Boy was a little upset. Two of his best friends had been hurt pretty badly, and he was just now learning that a super-villain was being housed in the Tower. He _hated_ the fact that the rest of the team had hidden this from him. Robin tried, unsuccessfully, to talk him down.

"She was unconscious the whole time. There's no way-"

"There's plenty of ways she could have been helping them! I mean, how much do you really know about magic? How much do any of us know, for that matter? And because you just had to get information from her, Cyborg and Raven are hurt!"

"Calm down. They'll be all right-"

"You're not the only member of this team, you know? The rest of us are here too, and you should try getting some opinions before you make your decisions."

"Fine. I was wrong. Next time, I'll get your input. For now, though, we have to see if she can help us. Agreed?"

Beast Boy nodded, too upset to speak. He followed Robin into the med center; if Jinx saw a show of force, she probably wouldn't get any ideas about trying to fight her way out. Secretly, though, he hoped she would try, just so he could take out some of his frustration out on her. As he walked through, he tried not to look at Raven, who was breathing through an oxygen mask. The damage the acid gas had done to her had been horrific, and it would take even her healing powers a while to fix all the damage. Cyborg wasn't there, opting to remain plugged into his computer while he tried to remove Gizmo's viruses. The part that scared him was that the duo had known _exactly_ how to remove his teammates from the line-up. Even he had to admit that Jinx wouldn't have that kind of knowledge. Whoever had put them up to this had someone on the inside, or used to. He pushed those thoughts out of his head, trying not to be distracted when he and Robin worked Jinx over. He couldn't be of any help if his mind wasn't focused. Robin sat down on the bed next to Jinx and began his questioning.

"Do you know where you are right now?"

"Y-yeah, but . . . why am I here? I thought you guys hated me."

"I'll ask the questions. Why were Fang and Mammoth attacking you?"

"I didn't want to join their team. After you guys kicked us out of here, I realized that I didn't want to spend my life on the run. I ran away from the HIVE, and tried to make my own way, but . . . they found me. Shimmer and some girl came to me and asked if I wanted payback. I thought something wasn't right, so I turned them down. Next thing I know, Mammoth and – Fang, you said? – came after me. I thought they were going to kill me, but-"

"Shimmer?"

"Mammoth's kid sister. She can change the chemical makeup of pretty much anything. She's also a Grade-A psycho. I take it she's the one that did the number on her?"

She pointed at Raven, and Robin nodded.

"Figures. But, if she wanted to kill her, she'd have done it. Whoever's in charge scares Shimmer to death, or she'd've killed without a second's hesitation."

"This girl that was with Shimmer, who was she?"

"I'd never seen her before, but I guess she was in charge of those two. She did all the talking."

"What did she look like?"

"Blond with long hair, wearing some kind of armor. She kept talking about how you guys took someone away from her, and she was going to make you pay for it. She seemed pretty upset about it."

Robin waved Beast Boy over with him, away from Jinx. Beast Boy was the first one to speak.

"It's not her."

"It sounds like her."

"It's not. Terra was one of us, a Titan. And besides, she's frozen, remember?"

"She betrayed us. And she was the only other person who knew the codes to get into the Tower-"

"Terra wouldn't do this! I know she wouldn't!"

"Um . . . do you think I could see a picture of this Terra? I don't mean to intrude or eavesdrop, but you were yelling, and I couldn't help but overhear."

"We can show you her, if you feel up to travel."

"No!"

"I think so. Just give me a few minutes to get used to walking again, and then you can show me."

* * *

Beast Boy dropped to his knees, struck dumb by the sight of Terra shattered all over the ground. Starfire and Robin immediately took up defensive positions next to each other, while Jinx took her own stance apart from them. Slowly, she edged over towards the wreckage of the statue, but stopped when a voice sounded from overhead.

"Yes, it's me, or at least as close as the Titans have ever known."

All four super beings recognized that voice, although none but Jinx had heard it sound as harsh as it did now. Five large rocks descended from above, each carrying a different villain. Mammoth, Shimmer, Gizmo and Fang got off theirs immediately, while Terra remained on hers, glaring murder at Robin. Beast Boy perked up immediately when he saw Terra.

"You're . . . you're okay-"

The head of the shattered statue smashed him in the face before he could say another word. Robin's hands immediately shot for his utility belt, but a pillar of stone shot him into the air before he could get anything. Terra lifted into the air after him, and the other four super-villains looked to each other for a second before rushing Beast Boy, Jinx and Starfire. Robin saw only the beginning of this, as the earth on the ceiling of the cavern wrapped around him, pinning him there. Terra floated up in front of him, still looking furious.

"What happened to you? I thought you changed-"

"Don't talk to me like you ever knew me. The Terra you knew was a clone, a backup in case anything happened to me. Somehow she got loose, and Slade tried to rein her in."

"Fine. But, if Slade had you, why did he need me?"

"I was supposed to be your right hand, your enforcer when you took over protecting the city from him. He thought you would be the best replacement."

"He wasn't protecting the city! He tried to take it over-"

"As a last resort after you snubbed his offers to train you! Have you ever asked yourself why guys like Mumbo Jumbo and Overload never unleashed their full potential? Mumbo could easily erase you Titans from existence with a few words. Overload could take over the city's computer networks in seconds. They never tried because they were terrified of what Slade would do to them if they did! Slade kept this city together in ways you could never imagine, and now he's gone, all thanks to you!"

"And the goon squad down there?"

"The Fearsome Five were supposed to destroy you while you slept. If we can wipe you out, then maybe the organizations looking to move in here will think twice."

"Other organizations? What are you talking about? What other organizations?"

"If I do this right, you'll never need to know who they are. Goodbye Robin. Can't say I'll miss you much."

Robin dropped like a brick once the ceiling let go of him. Flailing for his belt, he found it cased in rock. Terra knew him all too well, and had figured he would be dead without his utility belt. He still had one trick she'd never found out about, though. Grabbing the edges of his cape, he activated the charged fibers in his gloves. The current sparked through his cape, which formed into a rigid glider wing. He flew a short distance before Terra tried bringing the ceiling down on him. Disengaging the glider, he hopped from one rock to the next, riding them to the ground. When he got there, he took quick stock of what was going on.

Beast Boy was, in the form of a mountain gorilla, taking Cyborg's place as tank, holding Mammoth in place away from the rest of the team. Starfire was rocketing around the cave, trailed by Gizmo, who was using the jet in his backpack to chase her. Jinx was facing off with Fang, who was taunting her.

"Go ahead, try those little 'hex blades', or whatever you call them now. They didn't work last time, and they won't wor-"

Jinx didn't use a bladed blast, but a concussive one instead, knocking Fang into Shimmer, who had been sneaking around to turn the air around Starfire to rock. The two of them bounced along the ground for a few seconds before coming to a stop. As they tried to stand up, Shimmer gave Fang a not-so-subtle kick. He responded by shooting a glob of webbing at her hand, sticking the little gas bomb she'd pulled out into her palm. The gas spurted out, burning her hand. Her scream drew Mammoth's attention immediately; the large metahuman knocked Beast Boy aside and rushed his spider-headed ally in a blind fury. Robin looked over at Jinx, impressed.

"How did you-"

"I know them. Shimmer's petty and vindictive, and Mammoth's overprotective. I just had to get someone on his side to hit her, and both get taken out."

A wail sounded from above, and both watched Gizmo come crashing down, one of the wings on his jetpack broken off. He came down on Mammoth's head, dazing both of them. All of a sudden, Fang found himself alone against Jinx and the Titans. Before he could make his next move (probably a retreat), a wall of stone rose up between the two groups. Terra dropped down onto it. She didn't look angry anymore, but instead very sad.

"Fine, you win. Congratulations on proving to the world that Slade's organization has been beaten. Have fun when the other groups move in. We're leaving."

Dropping down to the other side of the wall, Terra and the rest of the Fearsome Five trudged off. Robin thought about pursuing for a second, but decided against it. They were beaten enough. Besides, if what Terra said was true, the team had more important things to worry about.

* * *

Jinx sat on the beach, staring out over the ocean. She didn't want to leave; her time with the Titans had shone her what kinds of good she could do to make up for her previous life choices. The problem was, she knew the team wouldn't trust her. She couldn't blame them for that; she'd caused them a lot of trouble before. Standing up, she turned, hoping to find a way off the island before anyone saw her leaving. She hadn't gotten very far when Robin found her.

"Hey. Got a minute?"

"No. I should get going. You know, get out of your hair before-"

"Actually, I wanted to talk to you about that. You did pretty well against the Fearsome Five, and we could use someone that can think like our enemies, especially if what Terra said was true about-"

Jinx threw her arms around Robin's neck. For the first time in a long time, she felt like she _belonged_ somewhere, a feeling she'd never felt during her time in the HIVE. Pulling back, she grinned at him.

"I take it that's a yes?"

"It is. And just so you know, you have one of the worst sales pitches ever."

"You know, you're not the first person to tell me that."

"Who was the first?"

"Well, it's a long story . . . "

* * *

Hi, Feral2k here. I haven't done this before, but with this project, I've decided to put a mini-commentary at the end of each chapter to explain some of the stuff I've done and the reasons why. To be honest, I'm starting it with this story so I can have some defense prepared for the Terra fans who will inevitably flame me for making her evil again. Well, here goes.

**Terra and the Fearsome Five**

I needed someone to give the Titans a heads-up for what's coming, and Terra felt like the natural choice for that. She's the only one that was close enough to Slade to know this sort of stuff and still be able to relate to the Titans. Invariably, though, she had to hate them. If she had just appeared and given them the information, it would have seemed too pat, and I didn't want that. Also, I wanted to give Slade's dealings with the team more meaning than they had. He needed a reason for wanting to train Robin, and successor seemed like the best choice for this. It's important to note that, while Terra refers to her heroic version as a clone, I haven't decided which one is/was the real Terra. This will eventually be answered, but I think I'll have fun torturing Beast Boy with this question for a while.

We have a motive, now we need a means. While Terra would be a threat to each member of the team individually, we've already seen that, working together, they can take her with no problem. She needed minions, someone she could teach the Titans' tactics to that would use that knowledge to its most advantageous end. She needed something more than Slade's robots. She needed more than behemoths like Cinderblock and Overload; Plasmus has his own loyalties, which will be revealed later. In the end, Mammoth and Gizmo were naturals. I considered Jinx for a few seconds, but decided she would work better with the Titans than against them. I brought Shimmer in, mostly because I was always bummed that she never showed up or was even referenced in the show. Fang was a last-minute call, mostly because I couldn't figure out how to get Blackfire in the role of follower. In the end, he worked better than she ever could; his powers were more useful than Blackfire's. The assault on the Tower provides the perfect opportunity to show off Shimmer's deadly possibilities, and Raven was the easiest for her to hit, seeing as she needs to breathe to use her powers. Plus, Raven would have shut down the Fearsome Five way too quickly. In all, the roster came out pretty rounded, and they worked out perfectly. Don't count them out just yet.

**Jinx**

Like I said, Jinx was going to stay a bad guy when I started this. I started writing when I realized that someone had to get the message of Slade's right-hand girl building up a villain team. Jinx was the only villain that fit; Shimmer was too unknown (and too psychotic to serve with the good guys), and none of the other three would agree to switching sides. Plus, it gave the team another mystic, which they are going to _need_ by the time this story plays out. Jinx's villainous past will definitely bring up a few stories and, even when she's not the main character, will keep the other members of the team on their toes. Plenty of opportunities there.

What's next for our heroes? Three distinct organizations trying to take over their beloved Jump City, that's what! The Scions of Darkness, Blood Syndicate and Brotherhood of Evil all have designs on the city now that Slade's gone, and the Titans are caught in the middle of their war. Hope to see you back here when the next chapter hits!


	2. Infestation

Virtually every character in this project belongs to DC Comics in some way or another.

To be honest, I stopped watching the Teen Titans cartoon after they "killed" Slade, so I'm picking up after there. This story starts about two months after Slade and Terra died, and continues in my own timeline from there on. Hope you enjoy.

"You're a long way from home, Boy Wonder."

Robin didn't even start when he heard the voice; he'd been expecting one of Metropolis' young heroes to find him, and it was the one he wanted. Steel sat down on the park bench next to him, somehow managing to be comfortable in her armor. She set her hammer across her shoulders and looked at Robin, waiting for him to start the conversation; she knew from experience that he liked being in charge of just about everything. She didn't have to wait long.

"I need your help, Steel. Things in Jump City . . . they might get messy, and I need someone else I can trust."

"So, you're saying you don't trust the Titans? I mean, I know you probably picked that up from B-"

"Most of them, I do. I'm still a little iffy on Raven, even after all this time, and we've got a new member that we're all still on the fence about, but I've known you almost since the beginning, back when we were just sidekicks."

"This isn't some kind of recruitment speech, is it? I told you the last time, all my friends are here in Metropolis. I can't just pull up stakes and run off across the country-"

"We're in trouble. We took out a super-villain because we thought it was the right thing to do, but now . . . his second-in-command told me that more are coming. Ruthless monsters that won't be as interested in keeping the peace as he was. We need all the help we can get, and I thought that maybe, you know, for old times sake . . . "

Steel had to think about it. She liked Robin, she really did, but after the last time they'd worked together, she couldn't help but see his old master in him. That was the _real_ reason she hadn't joined the Titans the first time. She hadn't wanted to watch him sink into paranoia and darkness the way _he_ had. _Maybe he's changed, though. Besides, a change of scenery _would_ be nice_. In the end, her old feelings for Robin won out over her fears of what he might become.

"I'll do it. Just promise me you won't shut us out when things get too heavy, all right?"

Robin surprised her in that moment; he leaned over and hugged her tightly. Steel was shocked; he _never_ showed this kind of emotion before. Still, it was better than the alternative, and so she returned the hug before asking the most relevant question.

"How are we getting to your city, anyway?"

**Teen Titans**

Infestation

The teller was scared. Sure, super-powered crimes were pretty common in Jump City, but the creature she was staring down was far from ordinary. He looked like a giant rat standing on two legs. More normal rats were scurrying around his legs, and he was trying to get at her with the claws on his fingers. One of his two companions, a kid in a hooded jacket, blew a loud raspberry.

"C'mon, Boogieman, give it a rest. We're supposed to make a scene _without_ hurting anyone, remember? Now, climb down from there and-HUAH!"

The guy with the hoodie was blown further into the bank by an energy blast, which immediately drew Boogieman's attention. He recognized the source of the blast immediately from the briefing he'd gotten before coming to Jump City. This one was called Cyborg, if he remembered correctly. The one next to him was the Beast Boy, and the girl was . . . who was the girl? It wasn't Raven or Starfire, but some kind of pink girl in a black dress. _Bad intel_, he thought. Cyborg made one of his standard call-outs to the creature.

"Hey ugly! Come get some!"

"Like I'm gonna take youse guys on solo. Tarmack, Hotstreak, Bubba-Saur! Get your butts in gear, now-like!"

Hotstreak picked himself up from where Cyborg's energy blast had put him, and Bubba-Saur began to _grow_, ripping out of his clothes as he shifted into a saurian form that towered over the Titans. Beast Boy laughed when he saw this.

"Three on three, hah! We can take you guys down, no sweat!"

"Really? How 'bout four-on-three, kiddo?"

Beast Boy and Jinx turned to see a massive man growing out of the street. More than growing, it looked like he was being made from the pavement. Although he looked kind of like Plasmus, they figured that this _had_ to be Tarmack. Jinx swallowed; she was still a little shaky after Mammoth and Fang had beaten her up a week ago, and she was pretty unused to fighting with the rest of the team. She took a step back, finding herself back-to-back with Beast Boy, who drew away a little. No surprise there; Beast Boy still didn't trust her, even after she helped them beat the Fearsome Five. She shook it off; no time for distractions, especially considering that they didn't know who these guys were. Cyborg and Beast Boy instinctively reacted to Bubba-Saur's attack, Cyborg shooting at his legs while Beast Boy shifted into his own dinosaur form to tackle their foe. Jinx raised her hands, preparing to cast a spell on Tarmack, when she was hit hard from the side. She staggered to her left, catching just a hint of movement from the corner of her eye before she got hit again. This time, she fell to the ground, though not before the guy with the hoodie stopped moving in front of her, laughing. Tarmack didn't think it was all that funny.

"C'mon man, lay off. She's-"

"Are you serious? I gotta hit her. If we take them out-"

"I said, _lay off_. She's mine!"

Fortunately, Tarmack wasn't _nearly_ as fast as Hotstreak. Jinx rolled out of the way of his rushing attack, springing off the ground and launching one of the energy blade spells she was fond of into his back before she landed. Tarmack howled when it hit. Spinning, he shot a glob of steaming hot asphalt at her. Jinx focused, and a sphere of the same pink energy formed around her, deflecting the projectile. She was safe, but not for long; she'd never been all that great at defensive magic. Hotstreak began rubbing his fingers together, faster and faster until they started smoking. As quickly as he'd started, he flung his hands at Cyborg, sending a jet of flame into his back. Cyborg staggered forward, opening him up for a slash from Boogieman. As he went spinning, Beast Boy dropped out of his dinosaur form after a tail slap from Bubba-Saur. Seeing her teammates hit like that snapped something in Jinx. Dropping her shield, she leapt forward, launching energy blades at her enemies. Hotstreak started for her, and she cracked the street in front of him. He hit the rough patch at super-speed, tripping up and hitting the ground. As soon as she landed, Jinx realized she'd made a mistake as her feet sank into what she'd thought was solid asphalt. While she struggled to pull herself out of Tarmack's trap, the three standing villains advanced, Boogieman stopping to pull Hotstreak to his feet. Bubba-Saur chuckled at her.

"Do we still get the bounty if I eat her, or will the boss-man cut some of it out?"

"Aw shut up Bubba. I get first crack at her. After all, if I'd _really _been moving, her tripping me up could have done me some serious damage. As for the bounty, we need to take the whole team out first. All we have to do is find Robin and-"

"Here I am. Come and get me, dirtbags!"

Every superhuman looked up to see Robin standing on top of a nearby building, cape fluttering in the wind. Bubba-Saur turned and ran; since he was actually tall enough to get to Robin on top of the building, he figured he could take him out before anyone else got a chance. Before he got take a shot, an armored girl equally as big as him stepped out and hit him with an arcing swing of her giant hammer. Seeing their muscle dropped made the other gangbangers a little worried, but that vanished after the armored girl shrank back to normal size. Hotstreak got moving immediately, throwing fireballs at the girl. She responded by raising her hammer, bringing it down on the ground in front of her and causing a small quake. Hotstreak was knocked off his feet, bouncing off the ground when he hit. She looked around for her next foe, only thinking to look to her back when Tarmack blotted out the sun behind her. As she turned, Robin threw an ice bomb at Tarmack, temporarily solidifying him. When the girl's hammer hit him, Tarmack shattered, dropping to the ground in pieces. Cyborg and Beast Boy slowly stood up, all five heroes searching for the last member of the hit squad. But Boogieman was nowhere to be found; he'd cut and run during the confusion. Robin jumped down from the building, landing in front of his teammates, all of whom were clustered around the new girl. Robin grinned.

"Guys, this is Steel. She's agreed to join the Titans. Let's hold off any lengthy introductions until we get back to the Tower though; right now, we need to get these creeps in jail."

"Robin! You have returned!"

Robin was almost knocked on his back by Starfire when she hugged him. Steel was a little confused by the enthusiasm the alien girl showed with her greeting; the other Titans were used to this sort of thing. Robin managed to pry himself out of Starfire's arms and gestured to Steel.

"Starfire, this is Steel. I convinced her to join the team in order to help us out with . . . you know. Is Raven up to visitors? I'd like to introduce them."

"I do not know. She did not wish to be disturbed when I went to check on her."

Robin nodded. Always introverted, Raven had withdrawn even more after Shimmer had almost destroyed her lungs with an acid gas attack. Even now, in spite of her tremendous healing powers, Raven had to breathe with an oxygen mask and could barely talk any louder than a whisper. It was understandable that she didn't want to be seen when she was this weak.

"Maybe later, then. Well, I guess I should give you the grand tour. Cyborg, you and Beast Boy see if you can find out anything on the goon squad that attacked you at the bank. I don't think they were after money."

"Will do, boss. We'll let you know if we find anything out."

Cyborg and Beast Boy headed to Cyborg's room, which had the best computers. Robin took Steel around the waist and led her out of the common room to the other parts of the tower. Starfire started to follow them, but Robin waved her away.

"Don't worry, Star, you'll get more time to meet Steel later. Right now, I want to give her the tour. It'll give us a chance to catch up on things."

Steel made an apologetic gesture to Starfire as she and Robin left. Starfire's shoulders slumped a little as the door closed. Ever since Terra had betrayed the team, Robin had begun pushing her away, even after they defeated Slade. Terra's return had only amplified this. And now there was a new girl, one that Robin apparently knew from before he'd met her. She needed to talk to another girl. Unfortunately, Raven probably didn't want to do any kind of "girl talk", and she still didn't entirely trust Jinx enough to talk to her about these kinds of things. If she lost Robin . . . she didn't want to think about that, ever.

"You okay?"

Starfire started, realizing that she'd been just floating there. Jinx looked more than a little worried, almost as though she actually cared about what was going on in Starfire's life. Starfire forced a smile and tried to float a lie Jinx's way.

"I was simply . . . observing a custom from my homeworld, a sort of meditation-"

"Okay, sorry I asked. Still, if you want to talk about whatever's _really_ bothering you, I'm available to listen, okay?"

Starfire nodded, a little stunned that Jinx had seen through her lie. Jinx seemed to accept that as enough and left, heading off to her as-of-yet unfinished room. Starfire drifted over to the couch right before an idea hit her. She should follow Robin and Steel, just to see how they were acting towards each other. That should give her an idea of how worried she should be about the two of them. It wasn't like it could hurt, right?

"Nice place you've got here. Tell me, where did the money come from?"

"I don't really know who funded this. Whoever it was, they wanted to remain anonymous."

Steel was inspecting the informal motor pool nestled deep within the Tower. She looked up from Cyborg's T-Car and walked over to an as-yet-unfinished glider mechanism Robin had been working on. She picked it up, turning it over as best she could, given its unwieldy design. She idly tried figuring out how to improve it when Robin spoke again.

"I missed you."

"Excuse me?"

"After you turned my offer down the first time, I . . . I didn't know what to do. Megann had run off, and Raven was still trying to sort out what had happened to her. I didn't really have anyone I could trust, and it started to get to me. Now that you're here, I feel like I can really get into this."

"Yeah, well, I kind of missed you, too. I mean, I was pretty alone without you. None of the other sidekicks really understood the kind of things I was feeling once you left. I ended up just shutting them out because, well, they just didn't get it."

Steel turned abruptly away after saying this, as though embarrassed about what she had just said. Robin stepped towards her, arm outstretched. Whatever moment was about to happen stopped when their communicators chirped, signaling a message. Robin pulled his out immediately, seeing Cyborg's face on the display screen.

"Tour's over, man. We got the background on our earlier opponents, and it's not good. Everyone else is coming too, so hurry up."

"Got it. Robin, out."

Both of them practically ran back to the command center through the door they had entered from. That was fortunate, for if they had used the door on the eastern side of the room, they would have run into Starfire, who had been hiding there to spy on them. She was close to tears; what she'd heard meant only one thing: that Robin and Steel clearly had history, and not just the heroic kind. She felt like crying. With Steel here, would Robin just forget about her? Her sad thoughts were disrupted by the chirp of her communicator. She listened to Cyborg's message and began floating listlessly towards the command center, still lost in her head.

"It's not good. Hotstreak, Boogieman, Bubba-Saur and Tarmack are an elite hit squad from Dakota, and we were lucky to beat them as closely as we did."

Cyborg was facing the rest of the Titans, including Raven, who had managed to find a portable oxygen tank to breathe with. Behind him, on the multi-functional screen that dominated the windowscape, were pictures of the four superhumans the team had fought earlier in the day. Beside each were short lists of crimes committed, heavily edited due to lack of space. Cyborg paused a moment then continued.

"These four were part of the original Blood Syndicate. The group was formed to provide a protection network for unpowered gangbangers and low-level mob bosses who wanted metahuman muscle for some of their operations. When a man known only as Holocaust took over the group, which had gotten pretty big by then, he rebuilt it from the ground up as a true criminal organization. Virtually every bit of crime in Dakota is controlled by them, and most heroes that emerge there are quickly bought off or 'retired'."

"So why are these guys here? And exactly how lucky are we to have beaten them?"

"They're probably here because Holocaust wants to add Jump City to his little empire now that Slade's gone. And, if you hadn't shown up with Steel when you had, we would be on our way to whoever's pulling their strings here, although who that is I don't know. Nothing indicates who among the Blood Syndicate's higher-ups would be in charge of taking over a city."

"Still, all the power players are behind bars now, at least. I mean, Boogieman didn't really strike me as the type to overpower anyone, much less bust open a jail. Trust me, it's a lot harder than it looks."

"Yeah, I bet you'd know all about it, wouldn't you?"

"Let it go, Beast Boy. Back on point, why were they after us? They seemed to be calling us out."

"Exactly. Going by their conversations with each other during the fight, Holocaust promised them a substantial bounty if they could get rid of us. If they _had_ taken us out, and if you hadn't have shown up they would have, the Tower was likely their next stop. We've got to stay on our toes these days; we don't know if any other organizations have prices on our heads too, or if it's just the Blood Syndicate. That's all we have on them for now, but we could probably get more if we worked at it."

"Please do. I'd like to have as much information as possible on any newcomers. What is it, Jinx?"

"I was kind of hoping you could talk Raven into letting me help heal her lungs. I tried bringing it up with her, but she's kind of touchy, and I thought, you know, that you might be able to convince her."

"How good are you at healing magic? I thought your specialty was bad-luck magic."

"Well, I studied healing magic until I was twelve. After that, my parents decided not to humor me any longer and forced me to study something more 'useful'. I could probably have Raven back to normal by tomorrow morning, if you can talk her into letting me help her."

"Come on, and I'll se what I can do."

Robin and Jinx left for the medical center, while Cyborg and Beast Boy headed off for Cyborg's room, where they had been researching the Blood Syndicate. Starfire found herself alone with Steel, who looked a little embarrassed at not having been introduced properly. She walked over, holding her hand out for Starfire to shake, which she did not.

"I'm Steel, from Metropolis. You are . . . ?"

"Starfire, of Tamaran. You should leave."

"What? Why should I leave, I just got here. Besides, Robin invited me here. I owe it to him to stick this out."

"You are not welcome. You will disrupt the team. You must GO!"

"Wow, okay. Well, you're not the first weird alien I've met. I think I'll go hang out over there now."

Steel walked away from Starfire, who was a little stunned at what she'd just done. She should be welcoming Steel, but she was trying to push her away. Was it because of what she'd overheard between the two of them? Was she jealous of their previous relationship? Or was she just, as Steel had said, weird? She thought about apologizing, but, before she could, an alarm went off. Robin came running into the room, immediately recognizing the scene unfolding in front of him.

"Jailbreak! Steel, Starfire, Cyborg, Beast Boy, you're coming with me, now!"

Starfire was eager for combat. It would distract her from these thoughts bouncing around in her head. She grabbed Cyborg, the only one that couldn't fly, grow large or ride a motorcycle, by the wrist to carry to the jail. Hopefully they wouldn't be late.

It was Bubba-Saur's fault, Boogieman decided. The rest of them, even blatantly unsubtle Tarmack, had wanted to get out without incident. Bubba had chosen to try and spring another prisoner, one he'd found interesting, and had set off the alarms. Now, the foursome was both leading their liberated prisoner, who was dumber than the box of bricks he resembled, and following the metahuman guide he'd picked up to help break into the prison. They rounded a corner and found themselves running straight into most of the Titans they'd fought earlier that day. The mystery girl was gone, replaced by Starfire, but the rest, especially the armored girl with the hammer, were the same players. It immediately became apparent that their attention was not on the Blood Syndicate members, but instead was focused on their new companion.

"Cinderblock? They've got Cinderblock? We're so screwed."

"No, we're not. Titans, go!"

The Blood Syndicate members decided that discretion was the better part of valor, slipping out of the hallway as Cinderblock and the Teen Titans clashed. Boogieman reached the grate leading to their sewer getaway route when their guide assimilated in front of it, blocking their path.

"Remember our deal. You get me Robin, now, or I hold you here until he finishes up with Big Dumb and Ugly back there."

"Seriously kid? You think you can boss us around? We're-"

"Hotstreak, grab Robin and bring him along. And before you think youse can argue with me, you're the only one fast enough to grab him and get out of the fight before the rest of them catch on."

Hotstreak nodded and then disappeared around the corner. By the time he came back, Tarmack had ripped open the grate. He grabbed the stunned crimefighter from Hotstreak, wrapping a gooey fist around him to keep him from struggling. The foursome slid into the sewers, followed by their guide. From behind, they heard a roar from Cinderblock, which hopefully meant he was winning. Before long, they couldn't hear any noise from the battle. Things were going good. They reached a fork in the tunnel, and Tarmack released a now-unconscious Robin, who was wrapped up in a swarm of cockroaches. Their guide nodded to them and took the left fork, while they took the right. Soon enough, they would be making their initial report to Ebon and his small staff, and shortly thereafter the rest of the Syndicate would come pouring in, ready to take over.

"Where're the Syndicate guys?"

"Forget that. Where's Robin?"

Steel, Cyborg, Beast Boy and Starfire were standing over Cinderblock, whom they had finally brought down after an intense fight. They had been so focused on bringing down their enemy that they hadn't noticed the disappearance of their leader until after Cinderblock had fallen. A quick search revealed the busted grate. The others immediately looked to Cyborg, the most experienced among them after Robin. He quickly came to a decision.

"Steel, Star, go down the sewers and see what you can find. Steel, you might be able to track Robin by his communicator, unless someone destroyed it or threw it away. BB and I will make sure Cinderblock stays in his cell this time."

Steel nodded, diving down the grate. Starfire hesitated for a second before following. The absolute last thing she wanted right now was to be alone with her potential rival, especially doing anything involving Robin. However, in Robin's best interests, Steel was the one that had to track him down, and Starfire also didn't want her to be alone with him. Distracted by her thoughts once again, Starfire splashed into the sewers' disgusting water. Shrieking, she shot up, but the smell had already gotten to her clothes and hair. Steel made an apologetic gesture.

"Same thing happened to me. I've never gone sewer-diving before either, so I just wasn't prepared. Come on; he's this way."

Steel started walking, Starfire floating closely behind. It was an uneasy silence, and it wouldn't last long.

Robin slowly slid back into consciousness. His first sensation was of something crawling over his body. He tried to move, and the crawling stopped, replaced with a vise-like grip around his entire body. He relaxed, and so did the grip. He tried it a few more times, only to get the same results. Clearly unable to force his way out of his situation, he studied his surroundings. The chamber was unmistakably a dead-end of the sewer system, though someone had tried decorating it to look like a bedroom. The furnishings were covered in muck and slime, in a uniform shade of pink. Peeling posters were glued onto the wall by waste. More than the posters, though, he noticed the pictures. They came from cameras, newspaper clippings and more, and they all showed him, like this cavern was some kind of weird shrine. A shrine to him.

"Oh, Robbie-poo, I knew you'd come back for me!"

Aside from Slade, Kitten was the _last_ person Robin had ever wanted to see again. She was still wearing the pink dress she'd been wearing when she'd forced him to go to a dance with her, although it was grimy and torn. Her skin looked the same way, but her hair . . . her hair looked fake, like she'd torn it off of a doll. She walked toward him, and he thought her movements looked stiff and jerky, like something was moving her from the inside but wasn't very good at doing it yet. He squirmed back, but it seemed like he couldn't really move. Kitten grinned, and Robin saw that her teeth were plastic.

"Oh, you can't get away from me that easily. Me and the oth – and the roaches have something special, and they're going to make sure you stay here until I'm done with you. And I'll never, _ever_, be done with you."

While she was talking, Robin saw something squirm out from between her teeth. It was a cockroach, bigger than he'd ever seen. As he watched, it crawled around Kitten's face, down her neck, across her shoulders and back up to her mouth, which it calmly walked into in the middle of "ever". All of a sudden, Robin was worried. Kitten was more than an obsessively love-struck fangirl now, something he didn't really want to think about. She walked closer, and he tried shifting back again, but his moving bindings (which were probably more cockroaches) pushed him towards her.

"Oh come on, don't you want a kiss? I've been waiting for it since our last date. Just one?"

"So, that little freak-out earlier, what was that all about?"

Steel was just trying to make conversation while she and Starfire wandered the sewers in search of Robin. His communicator was still on, which made following him easy. Honestly, she was a little bored, which was why she'd decided to get Starfire to talk to her. The alien girl's response surprised her a little.

"You are interfering with us. You should leave before someone gets hurt."

"Interfering with who? Everyone seems to like me, and it's not like I'm throwing myself in anyone's way-"

"I heard what you said to him. Robin is _mine_, and I will not tolerate you trying to steal him from me."

"Stealing . . . were you following us around on my tour? You thought . . . well, okay, he is cute, but . . . actually, yeah, I wouldn't mind being his girlfriend. And, just so you know, this possessive thing is kind of creepy. I mean, are you his teammate or his fangirl?"

"I beg your pardon? I am not being possessive-"

"You just told me you practically owned Robin. It's not the kind of thing you just shout out around anyone. Do you really see me as that much of a threat?"

"I-"

Whatever Starfire was about to say was lost to an echoing scream that both girls recognized as Robin's. Starfire had never heard him make a noise like that, and Steel had only heard it once, during a fight with Fright a long time ago. Both of them took off down the tunnel, coming up on what looked like a girl's bedroom sitting in the middle of the filth. Robin was on the ground, wrapped up in writhing brown ropes, while Kitten was standing over him, head down like she was going to kiss him. Starfire was furious, and let loose with a blast of energy from her eyes.

"No! Don't break her skin!"

But by the time Robin had shouted his warning, it was too late. Starfire's attack blew a huge hole in Kitten's back and stomach, spraying small brown chunks out from both sides. Starfire was horrified at what she had done; she had killed Kitten without even knowing what was going on. At least, she thought she'd killed Kitten, though the villain's scream soon disabused her of that notion.

"YOU! You ruined it again! I HATE you!"

As Robin, Starfire and Steel watched, Kitten collapsed as more brown chunks fell out of her stomach, though the last bit to fall was bone white instead, and far larger than any of the other chunks. The chunks began forming around the white one, with the cockroaches scattered all over the room joining in. What was once Kitten soon coalesced into a massive, vaguely human-shaped monster standing at least two feet taller than the nearly-Amazonian Steel. Steel was the first to react.

"Roaches, bleagh. I hate those little monsters. All right, let's get smashing!"

She rushed forward swinging her hammer, only to have it stop suddenly when it hit the Kitten-creature. She watched as her hammer slowly began to sink into the shifting form of the monster despite her best efforts to pull it out. Starfire threw a few starbolts at the creature, but nothing seemed to have any effect; any dead roaches were quickly replaced by new ones from the sewer. It threw a punch at Starfire, which extended far beyond any conceivable reach as Kitten pulled more roaches into her form. Starfire was pressed up against one of the disgusting posters as Kitten advanced on her, using the extra roaches to reinforce her hold.

"I finally had him right where I wanted, and you ruined it forever. Now you're going to pay. I'll just smash you like your friend wanted to smash me."

The hand not occupied with holding Starfire reached into the swarm-body and pulled out the hammer she'd taken from Steel. Starfire shot an energy blast from her eyes at Kitten's arm, but the hole opened up quickly regenerated back before the hammer could be dropped. Starfire closed her eyes, not wanting to see the hammer coming. Instead of the painful sensation of being hit in the face with Steel's hammer, Starfire heard a loud squelching sound. She slid down the wall, opening her eyes to see Kitten's armless body, with a giant Steel swinging oversized arms at her to squash more bugs in her body.

"Not happening. You wanted Robin, but you got so much more."

Kitten screamed, dissolving into her component roaches. As they slithered off into the water, all three heroes tried spotting the white roach, certain that that one held some clue to Kitten's monstrous transformation. Unfortunately, it had disappeared, leaving them alone with each other. Robin shuddered, and Steel rushed over to his side.

"Are you okay?"

Robin shook his head, pale as a ghost. Both Steel and Starfire drew back, worried that Robin might be sick. Starfire realized in that instant that Steel knew Robin in ways she had never considered. She had just as much right to Robin as she herself did. She drew Steel aside on the walk back to tell her that.

"Really? You're willing to risk losing your boy-toy like this?"

"But it will not be me who loses this contest. It will be you."

"You really believe that, don't you? Well, I can't wait to prove you wrong."

The two of them inexplicably shared a chuckle before catching up to Robin. Their little rivalry was on, and it was going to get intense, and soon.

"Hurry up, Boogieman. I want to get this girl on our side before the Titans can track her down."

"Shut up. I don't see why I have to go with you on this-"

"Because you're the one that made first contact with her. And, if you complain again, I'll feel the need to remind you that birds eat rats. Now come on."

Boogieman groaned and moved further into the sewers. Talon was one of Holocaust's recruiters, sent in to turn the local metahuman population to their side. Equipped with a sonic scream, clawed feet and feathers, Talon was a capable combatant in her own right, but was more useful in talking down hostile foes. Boogieman thought she was useless, but Ebon had decided she would be useful. Still, they were going to talk to a giant roach with the mind of a spoiled teenage girl. Not the most glamorous of assignments. Talon held up a hand and called out.

"Kitten? Girlfriend? We want to talk to you, honey. Come on out."

Boogieman shot back as a massive lump of cockroaches rose dramatically out of the brackish water. _This_ was the girl that had traded him a jailbreak for Robin? Not possible. While he scampered back on his butt, Talon strode towards the monster standing in front of her.

"Kitten?"

"They took him, they took him away, and now I'll never see him again-"

"Sweetie, you don't need him. You need people who understand you, people who understand what you're going through-"

"Look at me! I'm a monster! No one can possibly understand what I'm going through!"

"Look at you? How about you look at me and Boogieman? We're monsters too, but we're not crying about it. Those of us at the Blood Syndicate know what it's like to be different, but we don't wallow around in self-pity, we do something about it. We're more of a family than whatever parents threw you out when your powers manifested, right? Now, do you want to join us, or are you just going to stay down here in the sewers for the rest of your life?"

Kitten stood there for a second before her body began disintegrating, raining cockroaches until she'd taken on a shape and size more like her original form. The ones on her head shifted until the oversized white one was sitting between where her eyes would have been. She walked forward, and the water behind her rippled as an army of roaches followed her. Talon held out her hand, and Kitten shook it.

"Oh, I'm not Kitten anymore. That life's behind me. I'm thinking . . . White Roach Queen. How's that sound?"

"Honestly? Needs work. Ow!"

"Ignore Boogieman, it sounds fine. Come on now, we have to introduce you to Ebon so he can officially initiate you into the group."

Boogieman was brushed aside by Talon as she and Kit – White Roach Queen – walked off towards the exit to the sewers. He was tempted to have some of his rats start eating White Roach Queen's insect minions, but suppressed this urge; Talon might be better at talking, but she was more than capable of tearing him apart with her claws. _Hopefully I don't get stuck babysitting the newbie_. Surely Ebon wouldn't do that to him, right? While he was thinking to himself, he heard White Roach Queen make a comment to Talon, one that scared him a little.

"This whole city's gonna burn, and then he'll be sorry he ever turned me down. But it'll be too late for him to win me back. Too late for them all!"

Well, it's another chapter down, and it's another familiar face going down a very dark road. Onward!

**Steel**

The team is growing, and I wanted someone from Metropolis. While Superboy or any of the Supergirls were more obvious candidates, I was absolutely opposed to putting a Kryptonian into this story. Simple as that. I also didn't want to put Girl 13 in, seeing as I've already got two spellcasters on the team, plus she's a bad guy in the next chapter. Frankly, Steel was the only other teen superhero I could think of from Metropolis. Plus, it gives us an actual sidekick to relate to Robin as a young hero, someone who knows some of what he's been through. I like her as an inclusion. Her rivalry with Starfire over Robin's affection will be fun to play around with.

**White Roach Queen**

Each of the introductory chapters for the different organizations are based around a villain already included in the series. In this case, Kitten drew the short straw and became the White Roach Queen. For those of you that don't know, White Roach Queen was a Milestone villain, the last on the Blood Syndicate faced in their book before they

got cancelled back when Milestone was still in business. Basically, her insect-themed adventures meant that Kitten was best suited to become an insectoid supervillain. For anyone that's curious, Kitten is the big white cockroach; the others are simply under her control. She'll be back, still obsessing over Robin, but in a love-hate kind of way.

**Boogieman, Bubba-Saur, Tarmack and Hotstreak**

I wanted to start the Blood Syndicate off with a bang, and it doesn't get much better than this. Just so you know, the actual organization uses both characters from the Milestone universe and the Static Shock cartoon. In this case, all four of them are from the comics, and use their powers from there. Yes, Hotstreak could run at super-speed in the comics. He was also a racist, bigoted wigger, but that part didn't make it into the story. The actual roster was the Blood Syndicate used in "Static Shock: Return of the Cool", the mini-series published when the cartoon first aired, with the exception of Hotstreak being subbed in for Holocaust, who is finally getting the chance to lead his metahuman comrades into organized crime. It didn't seem right to put him into battle, and potentially jail, while he was leading the entire organization. They'll also be back, and in a big way, later in the story.

Next time, the Titans gain their Milestone member and face off with the Scions of Darkness, as well as an old, less-respected, foe. See you soon!


	3. Magic Mayhem

Virtually every character in this project belongs to DC Comics or one of their imprints in some way or another.

To be honest, I stopped watching the Teen Titans cartoon after they "killed" Slade, so I'm picking up after there. This story starts about two months after Slade and Terra died, and continues in my own timeline from there on. Hope you enjoy.

"Azerath, Metrion, Zinthos!"

Raven said her magic words and the shadowy energy she controlled reached out and wrapped around the girl, pinning her to the ground. Before anyone else could get to her, the girl dissolved to sand, spinning around in a twister before reforming about twenty feet away from her former location. Raven muttered other words, words her teammates would be appalled to hear her say. Sandbox was one of many new villains that had popped up after the Blood Syndicate's breakout two weeks ago, and the Titans had been playing catch-up with them. Raven was trying to deal with her without any help from Jinx and Beast Boy, trying to prove that she was still just as sure of herself as she had been before Shimmer's gas attack had ravaged her lungs. She looked around, trying to find something to capture Sandbox in; if they just kept trying to wrap her up, she'd keep slipping away. Maybe she should just . . .

"Beast Boy, Jinx, distract her! I think I have an idea!"

Beast Boy and Jinx immediately rushed in while Raven flew through the department store Sandbox had been trying to rob; no one quite knew why she'd picked a department store. Raven heard a rasping on the wind and knew that Sandbox was following her on the air. All of a sudden Raven was hit with the weight of the supervillain, knocking her to the ground amongst a demo stand of vacuum cleaners. Sandbox materialized fully for the first time. She was a little taller than Raven, with golden skin and sandy brown hair pulled up in pigtails. Her costume looked an awful lot like a bathing suit, which it probably was, given the nature of her powers.

"Any last words before I finish what Shimmer started?"

"Yeah. Suck on this!"

Raven grabbed the nearest vacuum and turned it on, aimed squarely at Sandbox. Sandbox shrieked and tried flying away, but her discorporation only sped up her capture as her body dissolved into easy to capture grains. As soon as she was fully caught up in the cleaner's bag Raven turned it off. Picking herself up, she shook her head. It wasn't like her to make puns, or really participate in banter at all. Where had that come from? A noise behind her alerted her to the arrival of Jinx and Beast Boy. Beast Boy saw the vacuum cleaner in Raven's hands and immediately made a joke.

"Looks like a real clean sweep, huh?"

Jinx groaned and shook her head, while Raven shot Beast Boy a dirty look, although he didn't immediately notice it; he was too busy laughing. Raven pulled out her communicator, signaling Robin that they'd been successful in their mission. They were finishing up sending Sandbox off to jail when Robin showed up. He took a glance at the containment unit needed to take the villain away (an airtight tube she couldn't slide out of as a handful of sand) and then back at his team.

"So, how'd it go?"

Jinx and Beast Boy ignored the question; they both knew this was directed at Raven, and was about more than just this fight. Robin had taken a keen interest in Raven's health after her injury, and was trying to make sure she'd fully recovered from it; even with her own powers and Jinx's extraordinary healing magic, there was always the possibility that she might not be 100% ready for fieldwork.

"It went fine. Jinx and Beast Boy aren't exactly thrilled that I didn't let them in on my plan to capture Sandbox, but they realize that, if I'd explained it to them, it wouldn't work."

"That's not what I mean. How are your lungs doing? Do they still hurt, or-"

"I'm fine. I just need some time to meditate before I go after another dime-store kid with a super-powered gimmick."

"I understand. All of us have been running ourselves ragged with these new villains. Let's go somewhere we can eat and get off our feet for a while before going after the next one."

Raven wasn't really fond of pizza, but everyone else was, and she didn't want to start a fight over it. Up top, Starfire waved at them, indicating that they had a table ready for them. Before they ate, Robin cleared his throat.

"As you know, I've been looking around for other heroes to help us out during this . . . crisis. Well, I found one in Dakota that was willing to come and join us. D-Struct, why don't you come out and meet the rest of the team?"

The guy that came over was pretty average looking. He was dressed in a trenchcoat over a pair of baggy pants and t-shirt. A bandanna covered his cornrows, making him look like a thug. Steel said something about that, and D-Struct raised his hands to fend off that line of talk.

"I used to be in a gang, but I quit after the Blood Syndicate tried taking us over. I just want to stop them from ruining another city like they did Dakota."

"Yeah, but what can you do?"

"Well, I can-"

Before D-Struct could finish his sentence, a cackling laugh split the air. The sky went dark in an instant, with the sun going black and being replaced by the moon. As the Titans watched, the "face" in the moon began to change. It shifted into one with a long nose, goatee and mustache. Parts around the eyes seemed to darken into a mask. The face was familiar to everyone who had fought him or studied the villain files in the Tower, which was to say, everyone except D-Struct. Beast Boy was the first to say anything.

"Seriously? Mumbo Jumbo? I thought we got rid of him when we broke his wand. Didn't we?"

"You did, but he's back, and more powerful than you could possibly imagine."

The Titans turned as one to see a pair of teens standing near their table. One was a girl with long black hair; she had an iguana perched on her shoulder, which was staring up at the sky with her. The other was red, with horns, a tail, skin flaps between his arms, and silver hair. Robin looked the both of them up and down, and then said only a few words.

"Answers. Now."

**Teen Titans**

Magic Mayhem

The two teenagers were quickly surrounded by the Titans; neither of them looked particularly happy at being confronted with the entire roster at once. Cyborg and Starfire were both ready to hurl energy bolts at them; Raven was on the verge of uttering her magic words to summon her power. Jinx's hands were glowing a little, indicating that she was charging up a particularly powerful spell to use against them, and Steel had hefted her hammer onto her shoulder, though she refrained from putting any more stress on the roof by growing in size. Beast Boy and D-Struct had both shifted form; Beast Boy was now a gorilla, while D-Struct had become a massive humanoid heap of molten lava, though he had somehow kept the cornrows. Robin was holding a pair of Bird-a-rangs, ready to throw them if the duo tried anything funny. The red one nudged the girl, who looked at him as though he'd just spit on her. He shook his head and spoke.

"Come on, tell them. You're the one who was too lazy to do her job, so you're the one that has to ask for their help."

The girl glared at her companion, but did speak.

"We're representatives of the Scions of Darkness. We – I – was sent to retrieve a small item for our master. I didn't think I could get to it myself, so I asked your Mumbo Jumbo to get it for me, for a fee, of course. I honestly didn't think he'd get this much power out of it, or else I'd have gone for it myself. Anyway, I don't think we can beat him on our own, and since this is your city, we thought, maybe, you know, you could help us out on this one?"

Robin quickly scanned the rest of his team. They were all a little worn out from running around the city for weeks hunting down villains, but this threat was too much to ignore. He nodded, and the girl slumped with relief. Her companion simply snorted, as though he thought the whole thing was one huge bore. Without so much as a word, the Titans rushed off, eager to find Mumbo and put an end to his latest rampage.

As it turned out, finding Mumbo turned out to be the easy part. He had set up shop at City Hall, though this building had been warped to resemble a great depiction of him, with his mouth serving as the entryway. The Titans moved in slowly, wary of any possible traps or guardians. It wasn't until all of them were inside the building that the doors slammed shut, trapping them inside. Both Jinx and Raven started groaning; when asked, they both complained of headaches brought on by the presence of overwhelming power. As soon as they explained this off, another cackle, similar to the one they'd heard outside, echoed throughout the building.

"Overwhelming power, yes; that I have. And it's all thanks to those little idiots from out of town. You should really try and keep the trash out of my city."

"It's not your city, Mumbo. It's ours, and you know it."

"That's the problem, little bird-boy. This was never _your_ city. It belonged to someone else. But he's gone, and that means we villains that didn't work for him can play freely now. I think I shall remake all of you annoying little heroes into something more suitable. Those of you that survive!"

Mumbo popped up to the right of the team, firing a blast of entropic energy into the middle of the team. Starfire, the one the blast seemed to be aimed at, rocketed into the sky, letting the blast slam into the wall behind her. As they watched, the wall began clawing itself apart until a roughly human shape about eight feet tall was standing there. Raven was stunned. Mumbo had just constructed a golem in seconds, without any of the preparations necessary for such a feat.

"Watch it! Whatever he's got, it's given him an incredible edge!"

"Don't worry, we'll just – WAAGH!"

Whatever they would have just done wasn't known, since Beast Boy was struck by another blast. He dropped to the ground, his skin practically crawling. He looked like he wanted to change shape, but it just wasn't happening; whatever Mumbo's spell had done to him was obviously interfering with his powers. Starfire was next; her skin started glowing green with her bones showing up black, like all her energy was trying to shine through her skin. She was screaming her head off, waving off Cyborg and Steel when they tried to get close to her. The attack on Starfire drove Robin insane, and he rushed Mumbo, pulling his staff out to strike. Mumbo just snapped his fingers, and he was replaced by the golem he had just created. Robin's wild swing did nothing, but the golem's counterattack was thwarted when D-Struct caught its arm in his own palm. Waves of heat poured out of his skin, and the golem started to melt into molten rock. He hammer-tossed it at Mumbo, but he just disappeared again, though he didn't reappear or switch himself with anything this time. Raven floated over to Robin and grabbed him by the shoulder; he had been heading towards the door, and he looked like he was ready to murder someone.

"Robin-"

"I'm going after those two we met earlier. They're going to talk, or I'll-!"

"Look, I know more than anyone that they're hurting, but we need a plan. We need _you_. Do you understand?"

Robin stood on the spot, shaking a little as Starfire's screams echoed through the building. They seemed to galvanize him, because he finally nodded.

"Raven, Cyborg, take Beast Boy and Starfire back to the tower. Between the two of you, you might be able to figure out what exactly Mumbo did to them. The rest of you, we have to find those two we met earlier. They know more than they told us, and we need every piece of information we can get. Let's move!"

Raven looked through the reinforced barrier at Starfire. As soon as they had gotten to the tower, Cyborg had hooked Starfire up to a few devices and placed her in the room she was occupying now. The room had been designed to hold, of all things, Raven in case her powers got out of control, and it seemed like the only place in the tower that could hold Starfire if her powers came literally exploding out of her. Though it was hard to make out any details of her face, Raven thought Starfire looked frightened, and with good reason; if they couldn't figure out how to reverse the damage Mumbo had caused, Starfire might be stuck in this room for the rest of her life. It wasn't fair-

"Raven? Raven, friend, are you there?"

"Yeah, I'm here. What is it, Starfire?"

"I . . . I am frightened. I am worried that I . . . that I may not be able to help you. Anymore."

"Look, don't talk like that. We'll find out how to fix you. Just try to relax, and it'll-"

"It hurts! Whatever he has done, it feels like the suns burning inside me, trying to get free! I cannot bear it!"

Raven didn't have an answer to that. She knew how to take away emotional pain, but that was only by leaching away the emotions that caused that pain. Physical pain was another thing entirely; her few experiments with taking it away had gone badly, every one of them. Turning away from the room that might as well have been Starfire's prison cell, she decided to check on Beast Boy. He had shown marked improvement since they had brought him back; while he still couldn't turn into any animals, his skin had stopped crawling, and he'd even regained some of his terrible sense of humor. She found him with Cyborg, who was updating Robin on their quarry.

"She's called Girl 13; been in and out of jail a few times, but nothing ever managed to stick. I guess she gets more powerful when she's in a city, but she's too afraid of failure to actually try anything. The guy is a mystery, though. I've run every kind of search on someone matching his description, but nothing comes up. He's like a ghost."

"Okay. Hopefully we can find them soon. I don't want to think about what happens if Mumbo is running around with that kind of power much longer."

The screen cut out, and Cyborg turned back to Beast Boy. He looked distressed; clearly, not being able to find information on Girl 13's accomplice rattled him. Beast Boy looked just as laid back as ever, though Raven could sense his concern for his lack of powers hidden underneath his good mood. Raven decided to dig even deeper; this was something she hadn't done since she'd met Robin, but it seemed like a good idea, in this case, to see what was _really_ going on. Shutting her eyes, she focused on Beast Boy, shutting out all possible distractions.

The image that came to her head was of an evershifting monster. It had barely taken on one form when it was splitting open, revealing another. None of them came remotely close to real; they sprang from ancient books, from mythologies long forgotten, from worlds beyond dead. The very notion horrified her and, with a scream, she was shunted back into her own mind. It took her a minute to regain her senses, at which point she found herself on the floor with Beast Boy and Cyborg standing over her.

"Rae, what happened? You just fell over-"

"I think," she said, pulling herself up with Cyborg's hand, "I know what Mumbo did to Beast Boy's powers. We've got to go somewhere with lots of room."

They went to one of the training rooms, Cyborg holding Raven's arm in case she fell over again. Once they were there, Raven used her powers to clear out a large space in the center of the room. She gestured to Beast Boy, indicating that he go to the center. He went and stood there, looking a little embarrassed and confused.

"Uh . . . what am I supposed to do?"

"Try and shapeshift, but into something imaginary. Try a hippogriff."

"What's a hippogriff?"

"Ugh. Just focus on something made-up and try to turn into it, okay?"

Beast Boy shrugged, then screwed up his face and tried to think of something that didn't exist. He finally settled on something. He shut his eyes and focused hard; a second later, he had changed from his normal self into a green-and-black gargoyle. It took him a moment to realize that he had in fact changed shape, at which point he jumped up and down in celebration. He hadn't taken into account his greatly increased weight; Raven and Cyborg had to grab onto some heavy equipment to keep from getting knocked down on the shaking floor. Beast Boy hardly noticed though, so caught up as he was in celebrating the return of his powers.

"Yeah! Dudes, I've still got it!"

"That's great. Try not to knock us down, why don't you?"

Beast Boy stopped jumping up and down, shifting back to his normal form. Raven shook her head, trying to regain her balance; the room still seemed to be shaking a little. As the three of them left the training room alarms started sounding, forcing them all to rush to the command room. As soon as they got there it was apparent what was causing all the noise. From the looks of it, someone was tearing apart the jail in record time. Cyborg punched in a command, linking to Robin's communicator. He pointed towards the door as he did.

"You two, go to the jail and try to slow this down. I'll get Robin and the others there as soon as I can. Go, now!"

Raven's teleportation landed her and Beast Boy squarely in the middle of the prison yard. Aside from the noise, there was no real sign of the breakout at first. When one of the walls exploded, both of them took up defensive stances, trying to be ready for anything. What came out of the busted wall was, at the very least, disappointing.

Standing in the rubble was a small force of recently jailed supervillains. Sandbox was standing on the right, next to the pumpkin-headed Jack O'Lantern. They were flanked by Fire Breather, who was scaly and orange, and Punk Rocket, who was carrying his signature guitar over his left shoulder. Several others were standing in the back; all of them were new to town, and all of them looked mad. Hovering over them, laughing like a maniac, was Mumbo Jumbo. He looked happy.

"Well, well, not as many annoying children as I had hoped, but it's a good start. Now my little pawns, destroy those Titans!"

Raven invoked a barrier as Fire Breather and Jack O'Lantern shot gouts of fire at her. Beast Boy shifted into a chimera, rushing forward to tackle the massive glass golem standing in the back. Raven floated into the air; since most of the swarm of enemies couldn't fly, it seemed like the smartest place to be. Unfortunately, both Sandbox and Punk Rocket could, and they gave chase immediately. She spoke her magic words, and Punk Rocket was knocked off of his guitar, though it swooped down to catch him immediately. Sandbox would prove to be a bigger threat, since no one knew how exactly to contain her. Raven tried to put a bubble around her, but the villain solidified and dropped onto her from above. Raven hit the ground hard, struggling to get up as Sandbox lifted off of her. Before she could quite get there, Jack O'Lantern grabbed her by the front of her costume. It was grinning (though, to be honest, they didn't know if it could really move its face at all), and the flames of its candle licked out from between its jaws. Its grip was hard enough that Raven could barely breathe, let alone cast a spell. Beast Boy roared and tried to get to her, but he was cut off by the large group of escapees. It looked bad.

Just as Jack O'Lantern was about to launch a blast of flame into Raven's face, a pair of red hands smashed onto either side of its head, crushing it to small pieces of orange goo. Raven dropped to the ground, massaging her throat, while the red guy that she had met earlier in the night (was it still the same day?) rushed forward, clashing with Fire Breather. Before she could get her bearings the rest of the Titans came over the wall, causing the convicts to scatter. Mumbo, seeing that the fight was lost, raised his hands. He disappeared, as did Punk Rocket, Sandbox, Fire Breather, the remains of Jack O'Lantern, and two other girls that were hanging around the back of the crowd. The rest of the prisoners, seeing that their chances were almost nil, turned as a group and ran back for their cells. Robin pointed his staff at the horned demon-kid, daring him to make a move. He held up his hands, not wanting to fight. Instead, he spoke.

"You want answers, or am I going to jail?"

"My name is Kid Devil. Obviously your computers didn't pick me up, and there's no reason they should. I'm a pure-bred demon, and this was my first jaunt into the Earthly Realms. I can't give you much dirt on Brother Blood or the Scions of Darkness, but I can help you with your current problem, if you're interested."

"What's in it for you?" Robin said, still not completely buying the idea of a helpful demon. "Demons don't give anything for free, trust me."

Kid Devil smiled. Raven shuddered when she saw that grin; it reminded her too much of her father, who was also a pure-bred demon.

"I want to help. If you'll have me, I can join your little team. It's not like you don't need it, and I can give you all kinds of information on the Underworld's nastiest that are most likely to come here. Deal?"

"Deal. Now, what does Mumbo have? How did he get it, and how is Girl 13 involved?"

"Girl 13 _was_ ordered to steal the item. She's lazy and insecure, so she tried to get your Mumbo Jumbo to steal it for her, with the plan to double-cross him or offer him membership with the Scions if it paid off. But, as soon as he touched it, he decided to keep all that power for himself. Girl 13 left town about an hour ago, so she's not going to be any help."

"But what is it that's given him this kind of power?"

"It has many names, but the one you're most familiar with would be 'the Philosopher's Stone'. I see you've heard of it?"

Kid Devil, and the rest of the team, was staring at Raven, who had pounded the table with both hands when she'd heard the words "Philosopher's Stone". Most of them were surprised at her outburst; Robin, who knew significantly more about Raven's past, looked a little worried. She blinked slowly, forcing herself to relax. _After all this time we spent looking, and that upstart Mumbo Jumbo has the Stone? Unthinkable!_ Blinking again, Raven forced that voice in her head back into the darkest corners of her mind. Realizing that her actions demanded some kind of explanation, she forced herself to come up with a lie, though it wasn't as big of one as she thought she'd need.

"Yes, I've heard of it. If half the rumors I've heard are true, it's not something we want him to have."

"How bad are we talking here, Raven?"

"Virtually unlimited power, all concentrated in a very easy-to-carry package. The Stone makes even the lowliest hedge-wizard or armchair practitioner into a near-divinity on the power scale. It doesn't do much for their control though; Mumbo doesn't have any more practice than he used to, which is why he didn't just blow us to atoms when he had the chance. I think I can find somewhere to hide it, if we can get it away from him, so that no one ever finds it again."

"Um, just throwing it out here, but nothing can stay hidden forever. If no one else finds it, you can bet some down-and-out demon prince like Orcus or an up-and-coming one like the Queen of Cinders will stumble across it eventually. As the closest thing to an expert on demons you're ever going to have, I say we destroy it. Then there's no chance anyone can use its power again."

Robin looked back and forth from Kid Devil to Raven before he nodded to Kid Devil, indicating that they would destroy the Stone once they captured it. Raven gritted her teeth behind her lips a little as a sign of anger; inside her head, the voice she'd tried to dispel howled in fury. _We _need_ the Stone! How are we supposed to overthrow Father without it? It will be ours, or heads will roll!_ Unseen by the others, who had started leaving the room to get ready to attack Mumbo, she shook her head. She needed to meditate, to clear her head of these kinds of influences. She needed time to _thi_-

"Raven, are you coming? We need all the magic we can get on this one."

"Y-yeah, I'm coming, Robin. Just give me a second."

Robin heard the little stutter in her voice and walked over, clearly worried.

"I want you to tell me the truth: Are you okay?"

"I'm fine. Once this is done though, I need a few days to myself. I haven't had the chance to meditate properly since the Blood Syndicate came to town, and some old urges are coming back in a bad way."

"In that case, maybe you should sit this one out. You can help Cyborg fix Starfire's powers-"

"No! I mean, no, I wouldn't be of much use. Just let me help you with Mumbo, and then I'll get myself back to normal, okay?"

From the look on his face Robin didn't like the idea of Raven reverting to her old self very much, but he badly needed her help. He nodded, but followed it up with a combination warning and piece of advice.

"If you feel any kind of violent feelings, I want you to leave the fight. I don't want anything to happen to you. You're family, and I don't want to lose any more family members. Got it?"

"Sure, walk away if it gets too intense. Got it. Let's hurry, before Mumbo does something we'll regret."

"So, all the power and lack of personality is built into the candle?"

"Of course it is. Did you really think he'd be that easy to destroy, half-bred dragon whelp?"

Fire Breather glared at his companion, a girl that went by the name of Vitriolic Nightmare. She was an infuriating creature, taking great pains to point out that he was only half-dragon; it made him suspect that she was a pure-breed in human form, though why she would keep it up for so long was beyond him. She was carving a face into a pumpkin, into which she planned to place Jack O'Lantern's candle, all on Mumbo Jumbo's orders. Punk Rocket and Sandbox were chatting each other up, trying to distract themselves from whatever was coming next. The other mystery girl was sitting by herself, trying hard not to look anyone else in the eye; she had long blond hair held back by a small golden crown, and was wearing a pink gown that could easily have been stolen from a Disney movie. Once the face on the pumpkin was complete, Fire Breather shot a tiny fireball into the pumpkin, igniting the candle. The effect was immediate; a body of straw grew from under the bottom of the pumpkin, covering itself in clothing as it emerged. Soon, Jack O'Lantern was back, standing mutely in front of Fire Breather and Vitriolic Nightmare. As soon as he noticed his last new lackey was back in action, Mumbo floated down in front of his assembled minions.

"Listen up, all of you. We have the power to destroy the Teen Titans now. I suggest we take advantage of their momentary weakness and-"

"Um, yeah, blue dude?" Vitriolic Nightmare raised her hand sarcastically. "Why should we listen to you? You've been kicked around by these little dweebs since they started up. What makes you think you can call the shots now?"

Mumbo grinned and pointed his hand at her, with the other one holding the Stone. Vitriolic Nightmare instantly turned into a child's doll, only to return to her normal state a few seconds later. The rebellious look on her face was gone, replaced by a sullen face of defeat. The others were stunned into silence. Mumbo grinned, and then continued.

"I call the shots because I have the power now. Now, any more inane questions?"

No one said anything, and Mumbo nodded to himself. He was about to say more when one of the walls blew in. Standing there were, impossibly –

"Magic show's over, Mumbo. Time for everyone to go back to jail. Titans, go!"

Mumbo raised his hands, causing small objects across the room to lift up and throw themselves at the Titans, though his aim was terrible; the young heroes dodged all of them easily. Steel squared off with the girl in the princess gown, who simply fixed her eyes with a dead stare. Steel yawned, suddenly tired. She dropped her hammer, thinking to herself that a good sleep would be perfect right about now. Before she could nod off D-Struct got between the two girls, using his molten visage to deflect the villainess's power. She turned to run, but a specially designed Bird-a-rang shot towards her face. Splitting into a bubble-fronted visor, it locked around her eyes, fronting them with a mirrored surface. She managed to choke out "Not . . . not fair" before she slipped off into Dreamland; Robin swooped down to catch her before she hit her head on the ground.

Sandbox swooped in the air, easily skirting Jinx's energy blades. Solidifying long enough to stick her tongue out, she started dissolving again when Jinx hit her with a powerful bad-luck curse that shorted out her powers. Fully human for the moment, Sandbox shrieked as she dropped on top of Vitriolic Nightmare. Nightmare's acid stream breath shot away from Raven and hit Punk Rocket's guitar, dissolving it before he could unleash a sonic bolt at the now-griffon Beast Boy. Beast Boy swung at Fire Breather with his claws, instead hitting Jack O'Lantern as it went flying between the two, propelled by Steel's hammer. Fire Breather shot a fireball at Beast Boy, but it was deflected by Kid Devil, who walked through the flame like it was rain water. Fire Breather turned to run, but found himself on the receiving end of a magma-ball shot from D-Struct; it was only his flame-resistant skin that saved him.

Raven watched the fight but didn't get involved. She was focused on Mumbo Jumbo, who was hovering above the action like her. He looked at her, and both of them knew that it was now or never. Raven conjured a shadowy fist around Mumbo, but he hit it with such force that it shattered. She shook her head; now that he had the Stone, there was no way she could overpower him. She decided, in one swiftly cruel moment, to shut him down. Chanting her magic words, she covered his eyes, ears and mouth with shadow. While he tried to cast a spell without his own magic words, Raven swooped over and snatched the Stone from his grasp.

Mumbo dropped to the ground without the power to keep himself aloft, but Raven couldn't care less. She held the Stone up to her face, staring at it with unseeing eyes while she caressed it with her free hand. The power was _incredible_. She knew at that moment that, with the Stone, she could easily defeat (_overthrow_) her father, that she could help (_conquer_) his helpless servants and followers, or do anything else her little heart desired. She was so caught up in her reverie that she didn't notice herself drifting back down to the ground. As soon as her feet touched the ground Kid Devil shot forward, grabbing the Stone from her hand and smashing it with his fist. Even his strength did little more than crack it, though from there he was able to break it in two. Raven immediately broke out of her trance, shaking her head again. She teleported away, leaving the rest of the team to clean up after themselves.

She appeared in her room, distraught. As soon as she'd touched the Stone, something had awoken in her, something she'd buried a long time ago. But it was coming back, had been, in fact, since she'd missed the chance to meditate over the last two weeks. She crossed her legs, hovering in mid-air, and began chanting. _I am in control. I am _not_ trying to take over for my father. I am _not_ evil_. She kept repeating this mantra to herself, silently hoping it would take hold again. Somehow, though, she wasn't sure if it would. Not after tonight.

Welcome back, all. If there's even anyone reading this. Oh well, I want to tell this story, and I'll be damned if I give up now. Got a lot to cover, so here goes.

**D-Struct**

D-Struct is the Milestone character used for this story. I know a lot of people will be howling mad that I didn't use Static, but Static is way over-done. Besides, D-Struct was my favorite character in the entire Milestone universe. He was a gangbanger who went straight after the Big Bang, only to be drawn back in after his former crew kidnapped his dad and held him hostage. What really drew me to the character was that, after he helped Static beat those guys, he was fully willing to go to jail for what he'd done for them. Static convinced him it wasn't his fault, but he still was going to own up to what he did. _That's_ a true hero right there. And yes, his powers were based around magma in the comics. I hated how he worked in "Static Shock".

**Kid Devil**

Each group also gets a representative member on the Titans. D-Struct is from Dakota, the one from the next chapter is created by the Brotherhood of Evil, and Kid Devil is an ex-Scion of Darkness. I always liked him in the comics, at least until he lost his powers. But I guess, what with sacrificing himself to save the city, he was still aces. He's a full demon in this so we can have something to play with Raven (see below).

**Raven**

Remember the episode in the first season when Beast Boy and Cyborg get inside Raven's head and meet the mean one? And then when she lost control fighting Terra in the first half of the season 2 finale and got the Trigon double eyes? There's something dark in her head, and it's trying to get out again. This will be covered further as the series goes along.

**The villain roster**

Punk Rocket you all know from the "lost episode". Fire Breather is an Image comic character that got a kiddie-pool movie on Cartoon Network; he's actually got a new mini-series going right now, but I can't afford to pick it up. Jack O'Lantern is based off of the Ultra-Force villain Lord Pumpkin, just without the megalomaniacal personality and ego. Vitriolic Nightmare is a mystery right now, but we will learn more later. The last one, Sleeping Beauty, is the result of having to watch my girlfriend's Anniversary Edition of Sleeping Beauty while trying to figure out a gimmick for the last newbie. Her power is that she can put anyone that stares her in the eyes, including herself, into a deep sleep. She's probably not going show up again, but there's always that possibility.

Next time, the Brotherhood of Evil rears its ugly head, and the Teen Titans gain their final new member (I promise). It's all coming up, just as soon as I can write it.


	4. Drop The Bomb

Virtually every character in this project belongs to DC Comics or one of their imprints in some way or another.

To be honest, I stopped watching the Teen Titans cartoon after they "killed" Slade, so I'm picking up after there. This story starts about two months after Slade and Terra died, and continues in my own timeline from there on. Hope you enjoy. _Amended:_ I was (relatively) recently given the complete series on DVD from a friend, and my girlfriend and I spent about two weeks of recovery from certain injuries watching the entire thing through, including _Trouble in Tokyo_. I know what happened now; I just choose to ignore it.

"It's time. You know what to do."

The guard nodded, even though the person talking to him on his cell phone wouldn't be able to see that. Hanging up, he walked down the row of cells, passing prisoners of all sorts as he headed for the special holding tank his target was held in. He entered the deactivation code into the control panel, releasing the sleeping man from his liquid bath. He groaned as he woke up, triggering the change. Purple slime poured out of his pores, coating his body and growing until he stood at least ten feet tall, covered in slime and glowing green eyes. The guard passed a strange sort of salute, stepping out of Plasmus' way as he walked out of the prison. No one stopped him; the entire prison staff, excepting the one guard, was suffering from mental paralysis, a static in the brain that kept them from doing anything. Plasmus crossed the threshold of the yard, looking down at a black-haired girl in a costume.

"Welcome back, Brother. We have to pick something up. You ready?"

"_Ja_, Brother. It feels good to talk again. Playing the idiot has been grating on my nerves."

"You can tell me about it on the way. Let's go, before the guards come out of it."

Plasmus nodded, and the two of them walked off. There was work to be done, and fast, before they could welcome their master to Jump City. And a warm welcome he would get.

**Teen Titans**

Drop the Bomb

"So, we're not going to talk to Raven about it at all? Dude, come on, she was totally gaga over that stupid rock. What if there's something seriously wrong with her?"

Beast Boy was frantic. In the two days since their fight with Mumbo Jumbo, Raven had stayed locked up in her room. He was worried in ways he couldn't describe, and that in and of itself worried him. The only person he'd thought of to talk to about this, Robin, didn't seem nearly as worried about it as he was.

"Look, Beast Boy, Raven hasn't had any time to herself in the past few weeks. If she wants to stay locked up to think this over, we don't really have any right to interrupt that, okay?"

Beast Boy muttered under his breath about Robin freaking out about what Mumbo had done to Starfire but, fortunately, Robin hadn't heard any of that. He walked off in a huff, leaving Robin alone, though not for long. Kid Devil and Cyborg, two of the three Titans that were working on reversing the energy overload Mumbo had forced onto Starfire, came up to him shortly after Beast Boy had left. Cyborg looked particularly pleased with himself, while Kid Devil, still unsure as to his relationship with the rest of the team, kept a neutral expression.

"We figured it out. Jinx is doing her bit, and then Starfire will be back to normal."

Robin practically ran to the science room where Jinx, Cyborg and Kid Devil had been working almost non-stop to reverse the curse Mumbo Jumbo had used to overcharge Starfire's energy powers, eager to see the results of their work. Beast Boy, who had returned to grab the comic book he'd left on the couch, found himself alone in the room with Steel, who had walked into the kitchen looking for something to eat. Both of them seemed a little uncomfortable with each other; it was no secret that Steel found Beast Boy a little immature, and he chafed against her more strict personality. She spoke first, trying to cut through the awkward moment.

"So . . . you still got those weird powers the Stone gave you?"

"Uh, yeah, I can still turn into the made-up monsters. You, ah, you working on anything right now?"

"Nope, just getting something to eat. Maybe we should stop trying to force this conversation; it's just getting too weird."

"Agreed. I think I'm going to go-"

But Beast Boy was cut off by a flying hug delivered from the rear as Starfire grabbed him, eager to get out after her experience. Once he got turned around Beast Boy awkwardly returned the hug while Steel came over and clapped her on the shoulder; Beast Boy didn't notice the look that passed between the two of them, and probably wouldn't get it if he had. Robin, Cyborg and Kid Devil quickly followed her in; Jinx, who had been up for a solid 24 hours performing the final ritual to break Mumbo's curse, had gone to bed instead of coming up with the group. Starfire seemed pretty happy to be back to normal, and looked horrified when Beast Boy asked if her powers, while contained, were still at the overcharged level Mumbo had put them at.

"I could never use my powers if they were still altered by the villain's spell. It would be most . . . most un-right. Surely you have not kept the curse he brought down upon you, my friend?"

"Oh, uh . . . actually-"

Before Beast Boy could try to explain that he actually _wanted_ to keep his new powers, the alarm started to sound, indicating trouble somewhere in the city. It was a mad rush to get to the streets; Beast Boy and Starfire, who could fly, were patrolling the air while the rest moved through the city. Starfire saw the explosion first, and began moving in without telling anyone else what she was doing; Steel, who had seen her go shooting down, moved in her direction, increasing her size and calling in to D-Struct, who had gone into the city earlier to try and find any signs of the Blood Syndicate's lower-level members moving in. They both arrived on the scene at the same time to find the source of the explosions: a girl made of silver metal, wearing a set of hospital scrubs. Starfire was pulling herself out of a hole in a building, barely managing to get out of the way of an energy blast from the girl's hand; the explosion spawned by the impact confirmed the girl as the source of the destruction. The silver girl was screaming at the top of her lungs; once she stopped to listen, Steel could easily make out her words.

"WHO AM I? WHAT DID YOU DO TO ME? WHERE-?"

Steel swung her hammer at the girl, striking her (probably) armored body with all the force she could muster; she was hoping to knock her out before she could cause any more damage. To Steel's shock, the girl caught the massive hammer, forcing her to drop it in order to keep from breaking both her arms with the opposed force. The metal girl flew up, punching Steel in her oversized jaw. The impact was terrifying for someone of her size, and Steel had to shrink to keep from knocking over buildings; as it was, she crushed some guy's car as she landed _hard_. She struggled to get up, painfully aware that her attack had messed up one of her arms; before she could pull herself up, the silver girl landed in front of her, grabbing her by the throat with one of her impossibly strong hands and lifting her into the air. She snarled a few questions while Steel struggled within her grasp.

"Why are you fighting me? Am I your enemy? How-?"

A ball of magma struck the girl in the side, knocking her flying and breaking her grip on Steel's neck. Steel rubbed her neck as D-Struct, powered up and ready to fight, ran forward. Before the armored girl could get up and start throwing energy blasts again D-Struct grabbed her and put her in the sleeper hold, waiting until she passed out until he let her go. Hopefully she would be in a less violent mood when she woke up; just in case she wasn't, the room Starfire had been kept in while her powers were spiked would certainly be able to hold this mysterious blaster until she calmed down.

Steel sat down at the table across from Jinx, who was drinking heavily from a large mug of coffee (the pot was sitting next to the mug) and giving dirty looks to the rest of the team. It took two tries before Jinx answered Steel's question about why she wasn't asleep; clearly she was still very tired.

"The alarms are wired into everyone's rooms. I was just starting to get to sleep when they started making all the noise, and now I'm too tired to get any rest. Lemme guess, you need something healed, right?"

Steel explained what had happened during the fight and held out her fractured left arm; Jinx sighed, put her mug aside, and started rubbing the site of the break while chanting one of her healing spells. By the time she had finished the rest of the team (including Raven, who had been brought out of a meditative trance by the alarm and looked to be in a downright foul mood as a result) had filed in, ready to get a briefing from Cyborg and Robin on their mysterious prisoner. It didn't take long for them to get started; Robin took the lead.

"We don't know all that much, actually. Her skin is coated with some kind of metal alloy that allows her to shoot explosive energy blasts and makes her incredibly resistant to physical damage; it might have other powers, but we didn't have the time to wait for her to wake up so we could run more tests. I think I know who can answer more questions on this; the analysis revealed a maker's mark of sorts that I recognize from a previous case. D-Struct, Starfire, Jinx, Steel and Kid Devil, I want you to come with me to investigate."

All of them, even Jinx in her sleep-deprived state, recognized that Robin was calling on most of the team's heavy hitters; the only reason Cyborg and Raven weren't invited was that they were the most experienced people that could be expected to contain any escape attempt made by the amnesiac metahuman should such an attempt occur, while Beast Boy might just get in the way. The group that had been named got up and started filing out, Jinx taking one last gulp of her coffee before following everyone else. Steel walked up to Robin, recognizing the dangerous look on his face as a bad sign; she had to know more.

"Who is this guy that we're going after? I know they're someone you don't like, but I think we all need to know who we're going after, if they're that much trouble."

"He's just . . . don't worry about it. This guy isn't a threat."

"And yet you're rolling out what's basically a death-squad, all for a 'talk'. I've seen this look on your face before, whenever someone like Duela or Clayface gets loose, so I know this guy is bad news. Spill, or I'll get everyone else to not come along with you."

"He's . . . just trust me when I say he's not a big threat. I just have some history with him; that's why I'm upset, because I thought we had a deal and this would be a major violation of said deal. That's all."

Steel wasn't satisfied with the answer, but she didn't want to send Robin out alone like this. She nodded to herself and fell back with the others. She looked at Starfire, both of them catching each others' eyes. Both of them knew that Robin was in a bad way right now, and the best thing they could do right now was go along with it.

One strike of the hammer was all it took to knock the door down, and Robin leapt through in front of his teammates. Several men in high-tech suits turned and aimed weapons at him, but Robin ignored them for the massive stone creature standing in their midst. Cinderblock turned to face him, swinging a fist that was caught by Steel's hammer, freeing Robin up to move further in. Leaping up on the nearest catwalk, he took stock of the situation. He recognized Overload, Cinderblock, Killer Moth, and Johnny Rancid, the last of whom had a massive dog made out of scrap metal chasing after him. Kid Devil rushed forward and stopped an energy blast from another familiar-looking villain, this one holding a pitchfork from which the energy blast had come; he suddenly realized that it was a trident, from which he got his name. Starfire tore a piece of metal tentacle that was wrapped around her off the last being, which looked like nothing more than a oversized, metal and plastic heart floating a few feet off the ground. He pulled out his staff, prepared to leap down and take Johnny Rancid before he could set his monster hound loose, when a voice sharply rose over the sounds of combat.

"All of you stop at once! This is a simple misunderstanding! Robin, get out here now and explain yourself immediately!"

Robin leapt down when the source of the shouting, a thin Oriental man in a hazmat-style suit, stepped out into the open. Walking calmly up to him, Robin decided that the straightforward approach was the best route to get him to talk.

"Chang. Tell me why you sent that metal girl after us and I'll ignore the fact that you've got half of Jump City's Most Wanted holed up here in your lair."

"Oh please, you know you can't intimidate me." Chang lightly brushed one side of his tiny mustache while turning and walking at a right angle to Robin, forcing him to follow if he wanted any information. "You just walked into my reception for the people I'm _really_ worried about. Actually, now that you have the experiment locked away in your tower, I really don't have to worry anymore."

"Then how about me turning you over to Slade's organization? They'll-"

"Do nothing. The girl in charge now is too unstable to leverage any kind of control over more than the brats she's already attracted, and without her master in charge there's really nothing to be worried about. You'll have to do better than that to get me to talk."

"What do I have to do to get information out of you?"

"Hmmmmm . . . let it be publicly known that you have the girl, so that her previous masters come after you instead of me. I'm sure you can handle their retrieval squad better than these ruffians can."

"Fine." Robin didn't like playing along with Chang, but he was so desperate for information right now that he was willing to do almost anything for it. "What can you tell us?"

"That's more like it." Chang pressed a button on his control computer, and files began opening up all over the screen. "They came about a year ago, twin girls and that slime monster you keep fighting. They had a sample of a metal they wanted weaponized, and they even provided a test subject to make sure the weaponry produced would work properly. Really weak girl too, the subject was; she had some kind of muscular dystrophy that made her unsuitable for any sort of heavy anything."

"I don't need the full story-"

"Would you prefer not knowing anything at all?" Robin scowled, but shook his head. "That's what I thought. Now, this metal had fantastic properties. It could create devastating energy blasts, was extraordinarily durable, and could be induced to flight if fed enough energy. And that was the problem: it required so much energy that any suit made out of it shut down after a few minutes of operation. It wasn't until I met the Killer Moth that I realized that we might be able to fuse the metal with the girl; she had a mutation that caused her to throw off an unbelievable amount of bio-energy, which was useless on its own but could provide the power needed to use the metal to its full potential. It was child's play to combine the remaining sample with her genetic code, and-"

"You didn't – that's disgusting!"

"Of course I did; Slade wasn't giving me any new challenges, and you had taken all my information on the Red X technology, so I needed something to do. The fusion had remarkable results, in that the girl gained all the powers the metal provided. In addition, her physical strength increased to a level well beyond that of a person _not_ afflicted by her condition; she felt like a god during those early days. But she started having problems with her head. She'd forget conversations we'd had, black out unexpectedly, that sort of thing. Then one day . . . she woke up with no memories at all of her time before that day. She thought we'd done something to her head and, before we could stop her, she started blasting large holes in our testing equipment. We locked her up but, as you are very aware, she got out and started causing damage all over the city. From there, well, you know the rest better than I do. I do hope you can fend off her owners' collection group; we really must match weapons to wits again sometime. You can leave now, by the way; I have to clean up your mess, and you'll have your own messes to deal with soon enough."

Chang turned away from Robin and walked away, gesturing for his assistants and villainous allies to follow him; Robin likewise signaled a retreat, leading his team back out the way they came. He'd seen a picture of the twins on Chang's computer screen, and wanted to do more research on them, just in case he could find a hint of who they worked for. And judging by Chang's speech, he didn't have much time to prepare.

The girl was sitting on the seat provided in the containment room, watching Cyborg through the nearly-indestructible transparent material that kept them separated; she'd tried blowing a hole in it shortly after waking up, but had given up when the blast had proven useless. Robin walked up to the door, opened it, and walked into the room, scrambling the lock so Cyborg couldn't drag him out before he was done. Ignoring the pounding going on behind him as Cyborg tried to break down the door, Robin sat down on the other chair in the room, practically daring her to take a shot at him. She just gave him what he thought was a blank stare, though he wasn't sure; her eyes were dead silver like the rest of her body, with no iris or pupil to help him read them. _Here goes nothing_, he thought.

"How-"

"What do you want? Did you bring me here to 'do some tests'? 'Cause that's what the last guy said, and it didn't go too well for him."

"We're not going to experiment on you. In fact, we want to help you however we can. We know you don't have your memories, and I think we might be able to help you get them back. Until we do, though . . . " Robin stood up and turned to face the window-wall with the scenic view of the bay, taking a moment before continuing. "Until we do, we could really use your help."

"What do you mean?" The girl had stood up as well, and had moved to stand behind Robin's left shoulder, looking over it and out across the bay. "How can I help you?"

"Stay with us. Let us teach you how to control your powers while you help us clean up the city. There's a lot of trouble coming, and we can use as much help as we can get. In exchange, we'll do everything we can to help you get your memories back. Does that sound fair to you?"

"I . . . I don't . . . all right. But this is just until I get my memories back. After that, I get to make a new decision, okay?"

"All right then." Robin pressed a few buttons on the computer lock, resetting the codes and opening it. "We can get a costume made for you in a few minutes, then you can go out on your first patrol. See you on the roof in ten."

"We're really going to trust her? I mean, she did break my arm when we met her."

"I must agree with Steel on this. This girl, she is a danger to us and anyone she might try to help."

"You know, the same could be said about the creepy half-breed you hang around with. I mean, true demons like me have a little bit of what we consider honor, but half-demons don't really follow any kind of rules for long."

"Don't talk about Raven like that! You don't know anything about her-"

"Calm down; all I'm saying is, maybe you should give this kid a chance before you start condemning her. Look at it this way: if you woke up with no memories, would you take it all that well?"

Kid Devil nodded as Steel, Starfire and Beast Boy all stopped to consider their reactions if they were in that situation. _What do you know_, he thought, _I didn't think that would work_. Before anyone could restart the conversation, the door leading back down into the tower opened and let Robin out onto the roof, followed by the mystery girl. Her costume looked military: camouflage pants tucked into black combat boots and a black tank top with a red atomic symbol on the chest. She looked a little uncomfortable being the center of attention, which was a refreshing change of pace from her furious attack of a few hours ago. Robin decided to introduce them.

"Everyone, this is Bombshell. She's going to be staying with us, at least until she gets her memories back."

Starfire and Beast Boy at least _acted_ nice, introducing themselves to Bombshell. Kid Devil seemed genuinely interested in her, though Robin noticed that he was watching the others more than her. Steel seemed flat-out rude, still upset about getting her arm broken in their fight. All in all it was going well; hopefully nothing major would happen during her first patrol. The last thing he needed was Bombshell freaking out in the middle of an unexpected fight. After the introductions were made they started out for the city; Robin had taken to performing some "show of force" patrols with multiple members of the team simply roaming the streets to remind people that they were there, and also put the idea in any villains' heads that they weren't to be messed with. They had made it about two blocks away from the tower when the communicators went off. Robin pulled his out and got the bad news from D-Struct.

"Those guys that we tore up at the lab? They're running wild through the center of the city. We can scramble in a few-"

"We'll take care of it. Stand by in case we need any backup." Robin hung up his communicator and turned to his away team. "We've got trouble. Everyone follow me, now!"

Robin took off on his motorcycle while the rest of the team flew behind him (except for Steel, who simply ran while at a larger size); apparently Kid Devil had skin flaps under his arms that let him semi-glide at a respectable speed. When they got to the trouble site Robin prepared to give orders on how to take down their combined foes. Before he could begin, though, Bombshell shouted at the top of her lungs and shot straight at Cinderblock. Steel, who was still over twenty feet tall, reached out to pull her back, worried that Bombshell was going to get herself hurt.

She shouldn't have worried. Bombshell struck Cinderblock with an exploding punch that knocked him on his back; he didn't get up, which meant she had knocked him out with a single punch. The rest of the villains literally stopped dead when they saw Bombshell standing on their heaviest hitter's chest; the mass paralysis lasted for a second, at which point everyone rushed her all at once. Robin motioned for the rest of his team to move in and support her, which they did easily. Kid Devil moved closer to Bombshell just in time to watch her get knocked through a building by one of Trident's energy blasts. He quietly slipped out of the fight, following her to make sure she was okay.

"So, it does work. Amazing, isn't it?"

"Yes, Brother. Come on Coppertop, let's go home."

Kid Devil was lurking behind a piece of rubble, watching what was playing out in front of him. Bombshell was picking herself up from the attack, and a trio was standing near her. One of them was Plasmus, who he recognized from the database. The other two were perfectly identical girls, standing on either side of Plasmus. They spoke as one when they referred to Bombshell as "Coppertop", at which point he realized that they were probably one person, just duplicated. Bombshell shook her head, looking up at them with confusion written all over her face.

"Who's . . . who are you?"

"Don't you recognize us, Coppertop? Oh, wait." The girl on the right slid into the girl on the left, merging both into one. "That's better. It's us, Gemini and Plasmus. You know, with the Brotherhood?"

"I . . . I don't remember you. I don't remember anything. You know who I am?"

"Are you kidding?" Gemini grinned; Kid Devil vaguely remembered the same type of satisfied grin on the face of a powerful demon who'd just devoured his own half-breed son. "You were always following us around, _begging_ us to let you hang out with us. You volunteered to get experimented on by Chang, because you thought it would impress us enough to let you join the Brotherhood. Well, I'm finally impressed. Come on, Coppertop; let's go home."

"Stop calling me that."

"Excuse me? What was that, Coppertop?"

"My name's not 'Coppertop'."

"That's what you called yourself when we met. I don't even know your real name. It was always Coppertop this, Coppertop that-"

"My name's BOMBSHELL!"

And with that Bombshell threw an uppercut that knocked the secondary Gemini spinning out of the first one. Plasmus caught the second Gemini and placed her gently on the ground before charging Bombshell, enveloping her in his gooey form. The conscious Gemini patted her unconscious copy's cheek a few times before realizing that she was out cold. She grimaced, then heaved on her double's shoulders to try and drag her away.

"What do we do with the experiment?"

"Bring her along. If nothing else, we can cannibalize her body for her powers."

"The boss, he will not be happy, _nein_?"

Gemini was about to respond when two things happened. First, Kid Devil leapt out and grabbed the conscious Gemini, pinning her arms to her sides and making her drop her down-and-out duplicate. Second, Plasmus blew into bits of slime as Bombshell unleashed an explosion from her skin. The blast knocked Kid Devil and the Geminis through what was left of the walls; before anyone could go back inside the building it collapsed on itself, weakened beyond standing by Bombshell's powers. Kid Devil quickly applied a nerve poison in his claws to Gemini, paralyzing her so he could leave her to dig out Bombshell. He needn't have worried; the rubble shifted, and Bombshell forced her way out to the surface. She came out facing the still-continuing battle between Chang's ex-enforcers and the rest of the away team. As soon as they saw her dig her way out of the building she'd just flattened, every single one of the villains surrendered, unwilling to fight something that powerful and uncontrollable. Kid Devil threw the two Geminis over his shoulders; all in all, this had turned out to be a good haul for the Titans.

"Bombshell? Can we talk?"

Robin was on the roof of the tower, finally finding Bombshell after searching the entire property; he had something that she was probably going to want to see. She was sitting on the edge, staring out at the city while the wind ruffled her shirt. She turned around when Robin spoke to her, though she didn't stand up and walk over to him. He instead came over to her and sat down, holding a disk in front of her.

"What's this?"

"I talked to Gemini. With the information she gave me, including your old handle, I was able to track down a lot of information on you. It's possible that it might help you get your memories back."

"I . . . " Bombshell looked a little apprehensive, and didn't immediately take the disc. She looked like she was weighing a set of options in her head. All of a sudden she blurted out something that startled Robin, both with its message and its vehemence.

"I don't want it!"

"What? I thought you wanted to get your memories back."

"When I ran into Gemini during the fight, she said . . . _things_. The way she talked about me made me sound like a pathetic hanger-on with no strength. If that's the case, then I really don't want to remember my life like that. It'd be too easy to fall back on those old habits."

"I understand. Still, I think I'll hold on to the disk, just in case you change your mind. Come on in; we're getting something to eat, and I'd hate to see you go hungry."

Bombshell pushed herself up from her sitting position, following Robin inside the tower. Before she walked through the door she paused and looked back out over the city. Maybe a fresh start was exactly what she needed.

And here we go again. At this point I don't care if anyone is reading this or not. It's a damn good story, I'm getting to play around with the Milestone characters that no one wanted to touch in any cartoons except the crappy (I've read the comics it was based on) Static Shock one, and I really want to tell this story. Anyway, here goes:

**Bombshell**

I liked Bombshell from the first moment she showed up in the comics, and wanted her to be a member of the team as soon as I started writing this. The question was, how to bring her in and tie her into the action? I decided that she should be the result of an experiment by the Brotherhood of Evil, which is mainly a science-based organization, just as the Blood Syndicate is based around metahumans and the Scions of Darkness are mainly mystical characters. Once I acquired the rest of the series I decided to make Chang the one that helped create her, since I managed to tie in one villain from the show for each organization. I ended up making her an amnesiac because it seemed like a good hook; a later chapter has her meeting with an old associate from her days as Coppertop, who tries to make her remember the fact that she's scum. By the way, the name "Coppertop" was picked because she was basically a living battery.

**Gemini, Plasmus, and the Brotherhood of Evil**

It's better than how the show did them. Yes, it was cool to see the Doom Patrol in a cartoon, but deciding that every villain ever should be the roster for the final story arc just doesn't work. JLU couldn't pull it off with the Legion of Doom, and Teen Titans didn't really do any better. Considering that they also screwed the pooch on the Fearsome Five, this wasn't really all that surprising. I changed Gemini's powers because Madame Rouge is still very much alive and well and has her powerset, so having both of them do the same thing would have been kind of weird. And yes, Plasmus could talk in the comics; he also didn't mutate himself into a many-eyed freak, and was German. The Elephant Man couldn't talk, but he was a much later addition to the Brotherhood. Like, One Year Later, around that time. Many of the old-school Brotherhood members will make appearances in later stories, especially Houngan; seriously, where was he in the show? He and Shimmer both would have made the show more enjoyable, in my opinion.

Next time, one of the female Titans has a date! Who is her mystery man, and what will Gizmo and Shimmer do to ruin this magical night? Stick around (or start reading) to find out!


	5. Double Date

Virtually every character in this project belongs to DC Comics or one of their imprints in some way or another.

This story started two months after the end of Season Two, and has continued on its merry way from there. Enjoy.

"This game is boring! Are you going to make your move sometime in the next year, or should I go do something else for a while?"

"Chess is all about thinking things out ahead and planning for every contingency. You could learn a lot from this, you know."

Jinx actually couldn't tell if Bombshell was rolling her eyes or not; since they were completely silver with no distinguishing features, it was impossible to tell if she was rolling her eyes, staring, or even cross-eyed. Jinx closed her eyes, trying to focus through Bombshell's complaining and the noise coming from Beast Boy and Cyborg's video game in the living room. Opening her eyes, she picked up her knight and moved it in the position she knew to be the best choice. Bombshell was about to make her countermove (which Jinx was reasonably certain involved her taking the bait of the sacrificial knight) when someone grabbed both girls by their collars and dragged them out of the kitchen. Both of them managed to break the grip and found themselves in the company of Raven; she looked kind of uncomfortable, probably because she had done something so impulsive.

"Can I talk to you two for a minute? It's girl stuff."

Both Bombshell and Jinx were intrigued; girl stuff and Raven didn't meet all that often. They became even more interested when Raven led them to her room, which was considered off-limits to pretty much every other living being in the universe. She looked back and forth down the hall before letting the other two in and pointing at a laptop sitting on one of the desks.

"I met a guy online. We're going on a date tonight, and I have no idea what to do."

**Teen Titans**

Double Date

The stunned silence lasted only a few seconds before Jinx and Bombshell started laughing hysterically. The idea of Raven on a date, especially with someone she'd met online, was so unbelievably funny that the laughter just came pouring out. Raven crossed her arms and decided to wait out the laughter; it took about ten minutes, but Jinx and Bombshell finally stopped.

"Are you done? I really need your help with this."

"I think it's great that you're going out of your way to meet people." Jinx wrapped her arm around Raven's shoulder in a gesture of camaraderie. "It'll do wonders for getting rid of that image of brooding loner you live by."

"Hmmm . . . are all your clothes really this dark?" Bombshell had started rifling through Raven's closet, and seemed disappointed by what she found. "You really need some new outfits if you want to impress your date. Can I see his profile?"

Raven nodded, and Bombshell called up the web page Raven had bookmarked, skimming through the profile of Raven's mystery man. There wasn't a picture, which made it a little more difficult to try and identify "wyldside", but the personality profile showed him as the exact opposite of Raven: funny, outgoing, that sort of thing. Jinx read over her shoulder, trying to picture this person as someone that would go out with Raven. Bombshell then searched for Raven's profile, finding her under the name "shybird123". Raven had done a good job of disguising the fact that she was antisocial and private, choosing words like "intellectual", "shy", and "deep" instead; Jinx had to cover her mouth to keep another wave of the giggles down. When they finished reading Raven's profile, Jinx and Bombshell had a little whispered conference. When they were finished, Bombshell was the one that had the answer.

"We're going shopping. You have to look perfect for the big moment."

"I really don't-"

But before Raven could finish her sentence Bombshell heaved her over her shoulder, refusing to take no for an answer. Jinx followed them, eager to help Raven out.

"Come on out. I want to see how this one looks."

Raven pushed the curtain separating the dressing room from the store back, more than a little angry. Bombshell had thrown at least ten dresses at her, urging her to try them all on; she was on number six. She _hated_ wearing anything with a skirt, and would have been perfectly fine wearing her costume on her date. Both her companions had insisted that she wear something else, and so she was forced to humiliate herself by trying on the clothes that they (well, Bombshell, anyway) had picked out.

Bombshell clapped her hands when she saw Raven in this dress, a light purple one with a thigh-length skirt. She had Raven turn around, which made her miss the glare of sheer demonic fury Raven allowed herself when her back was turned. She then picked up a white shawl she'd pulled off of one of the racks and draped it over Raven's shoulders, studying her for a minute to see if this was the right look. Jinx took this moment to voice a concern she'd had for the last half hour.

"I'm sorry, but you can't be both the tough girl _and_ the girly girl. I think it's a law, actually."

"Look, this is something I'm good at. It must have been important to me before I lost my memories."

"It's creepy! I just can't reconcile this side of you with the one that knocked Cinderblock out cold with one punch, all right?"

"Give it time, and you'll get used to-"

"Are we done here? I feel ridiculous."

"We're done with clothes, yes. Now we just have to find the perfect pair of shoes to go with that dress."

"What! Why can't I just wear my regular shoes?"

"Because you need to look perfect. The first thing he's going to do is see you, and you want to make sure he likes what he sees. Come on, we don't have all day!"

Raven barely managed to pull her cloak back on before Bombshell grabbed her by the hand and dragged her off to one of the shoe stores across the hallway from the clothing store they had been shopping in. Bombshell quickly picked out a pair, which Raven immediately tried to veto.

"I'm not wearing those!"

"Why not? They match your dress perfectly."

"I don't wear heels, all right? I can't walk in them, and they hurt my feet when I try."

"It's easy, watch." Bombshell pulled off her boots and slipped into a pair of shoes, pacing the aisle one way and back down the other without a single misstep. "See? Now, you try it a few times."

"Oh, that's just wrong. I've gotta get out of here before this weirdness gets any worse."

And with that Jinx stood up and walked out of the store. Bombshell shrugged before returning to pestering Raven to try walking in the shoes. She wasn't really in the mood to do it.

"Why can't I wear my boots? They're _comfortable_, and I know how to walk in them."

"Date shoes have heels, all right? It's just the way it works. Now, try them on."

Raven ground her teeth behind her lips but put the shoes on; even she was afraid of Bombshell if she decided to throw a temper tantrum. She took a few wobbly steps before grabbing onto the shelves for support. Bombshell made a few adjustments to Raven's posture, and she found it was a little easier to stand in the heels. She took a few more steps to get sure of her footing, then managed to walk the aisle once both ways before sitting down hard and pulling off the shoes. Bombshell put them back in the box and picked up a pair of comfort insoles while Raven massaged her feet so they wouldn't hurt as much. Then she pulled on her boots and followed Bombshell out of the store, hoping that this was the last stop on their little shopping spree.

"C'mon, you stupid piece of junk! Open up!"

Gizmo was trying to hack the electronically-controlled safe, but he was having a bit of a hard time with it. Even with all his technical genius, he simply couldn't break through the firewall. He needed currency, but it looked like this bank was not where he was going to get it.

"Y'know you're doing it all wrong, right?"

Gizmo stopped dead; it couldn't possibly be the person he was thinking of. But when he turned around, Shimmer was standing there watching him. Her costume, basically a feminine version of Mammoth's without the diagonal parts of the "M" across the chest, was augmented by the jeweled belt he'd watched her pull off of a crippled Raven. She had a look of disgust on her face as she walked up to the vault; as he watched, she pressed her hands to the metal door and closed her eyes to concentrate. The metal vaporized in front of him, leaving the alarm system still intact.

"See? It's _so_ much easier when you have superpowers. Ever think about dosing yourself with bang juice?"

Gizmo watched Shimmer pick her way through the wiring from the alarms, heading over to the safe deposit boxes. Vaporizing a few, she began picking out expensive jewelry from the contents and putting it in a backpack she was wearing; she seemed to have a knack for finding the most valuable pieces. Gizmo was too stunned to try and go through the wires, much less pick out the cash he'd been after. Shimmer picked her way back through the useless alarm system, and Gizmo immediately began following her.

"Can I come with you? Please, please, _please_? I promise I won't get on your nerves, honest!"

"I doubt that. Besides, I work alone whenever possible. I'm only with the Fearsome Five until I can find a way out."

"Come on, please? I can get us a car like that!"

"Hmmm . . . okay, you're in. But don't get any funny ideas about this. It's a business arrangement, nothing more."

And with that, Shimmer and Gizmo left the bank, off to cause mayhem and steal many expensive things before the night was over.

_This is humiliating_, Raven thought as she sat at the table. She'd had to stop at yet another store before leaving the mall, this one so Bombshell could pick out a purse for her. She'd also had to endure nearly an hour with Jinx trying to figure out the best makeup combination for her, and now she felt like a harlot (or worse, she thought grimly, a succubus). They'd even taken her communicator away from her, which meant she couldn't bank on a call from the team to bail her out of a bad matchup. All in all, she was starting to wish she had kept this whole thing to herself. She just had to hope that this all worked ou-

"Uh, _you're_ shybird123?"

That voice . . . _it can't be_, she thought as she tried not to spit up her water. But when Raven turned to see the speaker, she found herself looking at Beast Boy. He also wasn't wearing his costume, and had even managed to clean himself up, but that didn't change the fact that he was _Beast Boy_. Childish, immature, un-funny Beast Boy. This _had_ to be someone's idea of a sick joke. Scowling, Raven made her displeasure known.

"This can't be happening. I mean, really can't. I'd _never_ have agreed to go out with you if I'd known it was you."

"But . . . I didn't know it was you either! Don't you think this might be a sign or something?"

"No. Absolutely not. This is just a sick practical joke being played on me by the universe, and nothing more. Understand?"

"Come on, can't you give this a chance?"

Raven closed her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose. She really didn't want to spend the night with Beast Boy, but she was hungry; the question was, was she hungry enough to do this? Before she could give her answer (an emphatic "No"), her stomach growled loudly; with his sharper hearing, there was no way Beast Boy didn't hear it. She unhappily accepted his dinner invitation, seething inwardly as he sat down across from her. _Someone is going to pay for this_.

The food wasn't bad, Raven thought to herself. Actually, it was pretty good; she was beginning to wonder how Beast Boy had found this restaurant, and whether or not she could come here again without him. In all honesty he wasn't as bad of company as she'd thought he would have been, definitely not acting as goofy as he usually did. Despite herself, she was starting to enjoy it. Of course, she would _never_ admit that to anyone.

"So, maybe we could do something after dinner?" Beast Boy sounded hopeful, mixed with a little bit of desperation. "You know, if you're not still mad or anything."

"Well, now that you mention it-"

But an explosion rocked the front of the restaurant, jarring both Titans out of whatever mood they had been in. Both of them stood up and turned to the front to see Gizmo and Shimmer standing in the debris zone; Shimmer was looking funny at Gizmo, and they could make out the back half of what she was saying once the ringing in their ears cleared.

"-ink that might be just a little obnoxious? We want to shake this place down, not wipe it off the map!"

"Hey, I didn't see you offering to get their attention! Come on, everyone, money in the bag!"

Raven and Beast Boy forced their way through the crowd rushing the back door, though Raven was forced to start levitating when her feet started hurting; inwardly she vowed never to wear heels again unless someone's life was seriously at stake. Shimmer saw them coming forward and started laughing hysterically.

"Check this out, Shorty! Spooky and the Beast! Seriously, girlfriend, what possessed you to hook up with _him_?"

"Shut up. And, by the way, I want my belt back."

"Come and take it!"

Shimmer punctuated her banter with a handful of gas grenades. Raven froze up for a moment, remembering what Shimmer's last gas attack had done to her body. Just as the gas started spewing, Beast Boy transformed into a giant condor, flapping his wings a few times to blow the smoke away. It was just smoke; either Shimmer wasn't comfortable with hurting civilians or she just felt like spooking Raven. Raven decided not to risk the next attack being something serious and conjured a wall of darkness to push Shimmer and Gizmo out of the restaurant and into the street. Gizmo used a force field gadget to cushion his impact with the street, while Shimmer just turned a car into a fluffy kind of goo. Beast Boy decided to capitalize on their apparent distress, turning into a bull and charging Gizmo. He made it halfway across the street before Shimmer turned the asphalt to sludge, slowing Beast Boy down considerably. He changed form into the condor again, taking to the air after Gizmo, who had activated his jetpack and was trying to get away as fast as possible. Raven focused more on keeping any of Gizmo's rear-firing weapons from going to the ground and hurting any civilians, though she kept one eye searching for Shimmer. As soon as she saw her (trying to aim a chemical attack at Beast Boy) she used her powers to rip a street sign out of the ground and wrap her up with the pole. Shimmer scowled and started turning it to harmless water vapor, so Raven immediately pulled up another and entangled her further. Shimmer shrieked as the metal bindings began to tighten faster than she could transmute them, and Raven started thinking that she had a good chance of taking her down.

"Let her go, now! Do it, or your boyfriend gets it!"

Raven spun around despite herself, and was shocked by what she saw. Gizmo was hovering above her, cackling maniacally. Hovering next to him was a clear sphere; inside the sphere was an untransformed Beast Boy, who had his hands pressed against the edges with an embarrassed look on his face. Raven realized that she probably wouldn't be able to stop Gizmo from doing anything, and used her powers to unwrap Shimmer from the signposts she had bound her in. Shimmer casually walked over to Gizmo, looking at him with something other than contempt for the first time in her life.

"Way to go, Chrome-Dome! Here's the deal, Raven. You bring us the pink diamond necklace in the Chance Security compound in an hour, or I'll turn the air in your boyfriend's prison to water and see how long he can stay in a nonhuman form."

Raven clenched her fist, thinking about attacking Gizmo and Shimmer so forcefully that they _never_ troubled anyone again. As soon as her dark inner voice seized on that thought she tamped it down; she couldn't let that side of her control her actions, no matter what. She instead watched the two of them leave; Shimmer apparently got around by transmuting the ground around herself springy and bouncing wherever she needed to go. She had to do _something_, but had no idea what. She needed to think, but didn't have enough time to meditate properly. What was she going to _do_?

"All clear on this end. Check me."

"_Check, Sector 3. Call back in five minutes."_

The guard let go of his communicator, turning back to his route. He didn't go more than a few steps before shadows reached out and took him before he could make a sound. Raven stepped out of the shadow portal she'd just yanked the guard through, picturing a stopwatch in her head. She had five minutes before the guard she'd just snatched was missed, so she had to make every second count. Wrapping herself in shadows to conceal herself from anyone glancing in her direction, Raven went deeper into the compound.

She soon had a newfound respect for Robin, who had snuck past her mystic defenses in their first encounter, before the Teen Titans had really begun; being stealthy was _hard_ if you weren't used to it. She was practically holding her breath to keep from making any unnecessary noise, and on no less than three occasions she almost missed the security cameras that would have exposed her immediately. She stopped at an intersection to catch her breath and plan ahead when alarms started to go off. Her five minutes were up, and now she had to _move_ if she didn't want to get caught.

Raven managed to avoid the guards while weaving through the labyrinth that was the Chance Security compound, eventually making her way to the vault in the center. She thought about removing the guards through another shadow portal, but she realized that doing so would be a dead giveaway to where she was. She couldn't risk getting caught so close to her goal. She closed her eyes and concentrated, intending to teleport inside the vault instead of fighting it out.

The vault wasn't lit up at all, but Raven's demonic heritage made it easier for her to see in the dark. She picked her way through the secure boxes, searching for the one that had the pink diamonds in it. She made it almost the whole way through the vault before she found it, sitting next to an empty box that had fallen off a higher shelf. Opening the closed box, she gazed in wonder at the necklace; the avaricious voice in her head started screaming at her to take the necklace and run, but she forced it back down into the deepest recesses of her mind. She couldn't steal the necklace, neither for herself nor for Shimmer and Gizmo. She had to _think_, to concentrate and figure out an answer before she did something she regretted. But, there was only one answer. She put the necklace in the box, and closed it. She was about to pick it up when the vault door opened; she grabbed the first box she could and teleported out of there. She had to meet Shimmer and Gizmo, before they hurt Beast Boy.

"She's not gonna show, is she?"

Shimmer was stretched out on one of the flat rocks on the cliff top, trying to ignore Gizmo's increasingly pessimistic statements as best she could. Unfortunately, he seemed to be right; the time limit was almost up, and Raven was nowhere to be seen. Shimmer pulled a Rolex out of her loot bag, holding it up to check the time in the moonlight. _Two minutes, and then I drown the rat_. Sighing, she pushed herself up into a sitting position, planning on taunting Beast Boy before getting rid of him.

"She's not coming for you, kid. Tough break, huh?"

"She'll come, you'll see!" Beast Boy was being defiant to the end; Shimmer had to give the kid credit. "You don't know Raven like I do!"

"So, this is it, huh? No last-minute bargaining, no blubbering fear, none of that?"

"I'm not going to give you the satisfaction, you creep!"

"Hmmm . . . I like your attitude. What say you and me team up? I can get Idiot-Boy over there to let you out. Then, we ditch him and leave this town for good. You'd need a different name, but I think it could work. What do you think of 'Animal' for a name? Sounds good, right?"

Beast Boy turned his back on Shimmer, crossed his arms, and sat down with his shoulders slouched. Shimmer tried to pester him a little more, but realized that he wasn't going to change his mind or, for that matter, give her the time of day. She thought about sulking, but knew deep down that it wouldn't get her anywhere. She held up her hands and slowly started turning the air to water, setting it trickling down the inside of the force field to add to the suspense-

"That's enough!"

Without Shimmer to hold it in one form, the water reverted back to oxygen. That was perfectly fine, since Raven was standing there with a Chance Security lockbox tucked under her arm. Shimmer held out her hand to Gizmo, who placed a pair of handcuffs into it. With those secured, Shimmer held out both hands.

"Give me the box and put these on. Once we see the necklace, we'll uncuff you and let your little friend here loose. Oh, and don't think about trying anything funny; the cuffs will knock out your powers as long as you're wearing them."

Raven glared at her but handed over the box at the same time she took the cuffs. Shimmer opened the box . . . only to find an empty box. She threw it down on the ground, raising her hand to aim her powers at the air in Gizmo's bubble when –

"Azerath, Metrion, Zinthos!"

Raven's shadows wrapped around Shimmer's right arm and Gizmo's left arm, pulling them together. Before either of them could react, Raven slapped the power-negating cuffs over their arms, locking them together and knocking out Shimmer's powers completely.

"What the-you rat! Quick, unlock us!"

"I didn't bring the key! We were going to leave her locked up, remember?"

"AAAAAUUGGGHHH! I hate, hate, HATE YOU! Well, what are you waiting for; take me to the key, right NOW! Wait, not like thaaaaaaaaaaaaattttt!"

Raven watched Shimmer get dragged into the sky by Gizmo's jetpack for a second before rushing through the force bubble and into a fierce hug with Beast Boy. She held on for at least a minute before letting him go; she didn't want to, though.

"Thank God you're safe! If anything had happened to you, I don't know what I would have done! I lo . . . I love you."

It had just slipped out, but she realized that she meant it more wholeheartedly than anything she'd ever said before or probably would ever say again. Before she could change her mind she grabbed Beast Boy by the front of his shirt and pulled him into a kiss that she wished would never end. She eventually had to come up for air, but she still pressed close to him. Beast Boy had a few questions that he needed answered, and started with the first.

"So, I guess you're going to be nicer to me from now on? I mean, if we're going to be boyfriend and girlfriend, you're going to have to, right?"

"Yeah, I think I can do that."

"Okay. Now, do you have any way of getting us out of here? This thing cut out my powers, but since yours are different, maybe you can teleport us out of the bubble."

"Sure I can. Just give me a . . . " But no matter how hard she tried, Raven couldn't summon the power to teleport even herself. "I don't get it. I got in all right. Why can't I get us out?"

"I think it's supposed to let things in. You don't happen to have your communicator on you, do you?"

"Jinx and Bombshell took it away. What about you?"

"Cyborg told me to leave it back at the Tower. Looks like we're stuck here until they notice we're missing."

"Yeah." Raven looked out over the ocean, watching the full moon reflect silver light off the water. "They certainly picked a romantic spot to leave us."

Raven cuddled up closer to Beast Boy, and he wrapped his arm around her shoulders. No matter how long it took for them to get out, at least they had each other. And right now, that was all that mattered.

Well, at least someone's out there. I noticed after posting the last chapter that a few people had added this story to their Favorites, and that's good enough for me. Now that I'm not just howling at the night, I might as well get down to business.

**Beast Boy and Raven**

This was not started by the show. Beast Boy and Raven had been having awkward moments for _years_, both before and after Raven's body was destroyed. They finally got to have a real relationship (or at least, as much as they could) in the last run of the comic, the one that introduced all those young "clones" of some more established heroes and first cast Deathstroke's daughter as Ravager. I couldn't just have them click either; we needed something to go down, or else this chapter would have been pretty boring. The fact that Raven now has an emotional connection to someone else will be _extremely_ important later on, when I go deeper into this "inner evil" voice Raven has in her head.

**Gizmo and Shimmer**

It's not really a "double date" if there's only one couple, right? I originally had it pegged to be Blackfire and Red X, but then I realized that I still needed to put Red X in this world as an independent entity to my satisfaction; I'm not the type who can just plop someone down and leave it at that. When Red X appears, he'll have his own origin within this story. Back to the people that actually _did_ appear, I thought it would be really creepy if the pair was Shimmer and Mammoth (eeeww), and Fang may or may not still be involved with White Roach Queen (formerly Kitten). Just to clarify, Shimmer actually started getting to like Gizmo, up to the point where she ended up shackled to him with a power-negating set of cuffs. They're not likely to repeat this experience anytime soon.

**Bombshell as the "girly" girl**

Because she was such a butch in the comics, that's why. I also thought it would be nice if she had what might be a background that was the opposite of how she and her powers act. It seemed like a pleasant change of pace.

Next time, we start a story arc involving the past of one of the new Titans that might lead to the end of the future of the entire team! Stay tuned to find out more!

P.S. – It's still kind of lonely out here. Maybe say something in a review, let me know you're not just jacking with me. It'd be nice, is all.


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